Competing with the glitter of Times Square
Whitehouse & Company have completed several projects for the New York Subway System, including a system-wide review of all graphics. This project is MTA’s flagship entrance at 42nd Street and Broadway, by Fox & Fowle, Architects, for the New York Subway system which for the first time proudly displays the Subway system as a brand.
In the beginning....
On the new glazed atrium on Broadway for the American Bible Society Headquarters by Fox & Fowle, Architects, Whitehouse & Company incorporated a major graphics component featuring the first three words of Genesis in each of the languages in which the Society distributes Bibles, many of which did not exist as established typeforms and had to be custom designed.
Imagine....
The key graphic element in this historic renovation of a classic Carnegie Library on New York’s Upper West Side by Helpern Architects features the single word IMAGINE, a concept not only inviting children to explore the world of Literature, but also making reference to John Lennon’s “Imagine” immortalzed in his memorial nearby in Central Park. This award-winning project was featured in a street-level display in the AIA NY gallery in New York.
Fourth in a series
Our fourth in a series of Times Square addresses with FxFowle, Architects, this time sits not in Times Square itself, but immediately north of the New York Times building on Eighth Avenue. Apart from all interior, tenant and lobby signage, it features a vertical internally-lit glass beacon sign some seventy feet high announcing the office tower. The project also features the third of a series of flagship Subway entrances on 42nd Street by Whitehouse & Company.
Honoring genius
This dramatic structure by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects, bridging between and connecting two earlier laboratory structures, presented some unique challenges for graphics including donor signage and an historical display on each level commemorating the many ground-breaking discoveries that were born here. Similarly, the functional signage needed to meet the many safety and other demands of a laboratory environment.
Gateway to the Nation's Capital
Whitehouse & Company teamed with Lance Wyman to improve the user experience of Union Station, Washington. Not only to help users find their way around, but to reintroduce a sense of civic pride and dignity into this major gateway to the Nation’s Capital, and to welcome and introduce visitors to the City beyond. Here three different wayfinding approaches are shown, including the selected fingerboard system. Studies were also made for furniture and desks in the Historic Main Hall.
Designing in an historical context
This comprehensive wayfinding and signage system for New Jersey’s State Capital by Wyman/Whitehouse makes reference to the industrial character of the City where Roebling designed and spun the cables for the Brooklyn Bridge. Components include a series of icons differentiating separate locales, and a series of vehicular and pedestrian signs including walking tour markers, historic timelines, and map kiosks.
A window revealing the vibrant character of the school
Upon visiting Brooklyn Friends School, one is struck by the richness of its culture: in hallways filled with artwork of talented children, in the enthusiasm of teachers and students in their classrooms, in the diversity of ethnic backgrounds. The Identity integrates and show-cases these assets. A square placed at a dynamic angle provides an active window through which the many different faces of the school’s personality can be seen.
Signs of the Times
A key component of the Times Square renaissance, the Condé Nast building at Four Times Square by Fox & Fowle, Architects, demanded architectural graphics components which complemented the dramatic lobby and street façades. Gently curved backlit steel panels acknowledge the prestigious key tenant while dimensional letters floating from the rough-hewn granite identify the street address.
Integrating graphics and architecture
Whitehouse & Company carefully integrated both functional and donor signage into Fink and Platt, Architects renovation of the Jewish Braille Institute Headquarters and Library in New York. The room signs connect visually with the door frames by means of a perforated chassis making a reference to Braille, decorative Braille number supergraphics indicate floor levels, a major donor plaque sits in a recess its face flush with the wall, and the street number grows as a sculptural form from the entrance canopy on the street façade.
Identifying an American landmark
The sign program for Pei Cobb Freed Architects NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center extension, included a range of large-scale illuminated signage and a comprehensive interior and exterior system including donor and special graphics.
Broadcasting inclusiveness and literacy
The mission: create an identity and supporting materials to express inclusiveness, and LAC’s role as the core resource for literacy professionals nationwide. The solution: a new mark, in a range of colors, suggesting ripples of knowledge radiating from a common center.