Metro Magic

Enter Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle Metro Station and be greeted by an architectural masterpiece. As you descend the station’s 188-foot-long escalator, one of the longest in North America, and lay witness to architect Harry Weese’s magnum opus — a subway system that has come to be defined by its elegance.

Source: Matthew Monteith, Dwell

Pass through the fare gates and be enveloped by the stunning Brutalist architecture, a timeless specimen of the mid-20th century modernist architecture movement. Look up and feel the iconic vaulted tunnel rise dozens of feet above your head, beckoning you to journey deeper into the system. Look down and see a grid of hexagonal terracotta tiles contrasting beautifully with the pale gray of the concrete. The station’s indirect lighting — circular portholes recessed into the platform’s edge and bright spotlights nestled behind the platform — illuminates the station from below, drawing your eye up and around, where the tunnel’s rectangular coffers create a sense of symmetry and movement. Sit on a concrete bench and feel a profound sense of smallness as you wait for your train. Just as you’ve come to terms with the station’s grandeur, the porthole lights on the platform’s edge blink in unison. Your train is arriving.

Source: Alan Wolf, Flickr

Step into the retrofuturistic train car, take a seat on a blue padded bench and wait for your 200-meter-long chariot to whisk you away. 

Source: Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post/Getty Images

As you travel at 40 miles per hour under the bustling streets of our nation’s capital, you think about what it took to build this system. Six lines and 98 stations spread over three distinct jurisdictions. One-thousand-three-hundred-eighteen rail cars. One-hundred-thirty miles of track. Five-hundred-thousand riders every day. All built in the last 50 years. From groundbreaking on December 9th, 1969, it took hundreds of workers nearly eight years to build and open the first section of the metro — a 4.6-mile portion of the red line, the line on which you are currently riding, that extends from Farragut North in the west to Rhode Island Avenue in the east. In the following ten years, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) would add three more lines and over 50 new stations.

You think about how each one of these underground stations was designed with the same principles in mind — uniformity, visual elegance, and functionality. The 600-foot long tunnels, and 30-foot high ceilings create a sense of openness and safety. Platforms are designed with information pillars rather than overhead signage, increasing ease of use and reducing visual noise. The simplicity creates a space where people and energy can flow freely from one end of the platform to the other. The recessed lighting behind the platforms illuminates the ceiling above, contributing to a feeling of grandness and simultaneously reduces dark spaces and harsh shadows. The wide walls are out of reach to travelers, eliminating the risk of defacement. The signature ceiling pattern above you is repeated in almost every station, only interrupted by track intersections. The long, repeated rectangles visually please you and subconsciously point you in the right direction, guiding you on and off the platform effortlessly. The uniform design of each station is a message — each stop is not an individual point but a link in a network. A network that can take you anywhere you need to go.

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Source: WMATA

You arrive at Metro Center and marvel at these design principles in play. This transfer hub, where the Blue, Orange, Silver, and Red lines converge, is the city’s busiest and most beautiful station. As you step off the train, the interesting vaults of the four lines create a massive cathedral of transportation. The double-tall station is a palace of ordered chaos. North/South and East/West trains fly over and under each other as tourists and commuters scramble from one platform to another. You need the Blue Line. Signage on the wall points you in the right direction and you should find your way easily. The font, the size, the color, the contrast — everything down to the spacing of the letters is designed for human readability. Your path down to the blue line is made simple by the station’s design — the shape of the platform guides you right to the escalator. It’s all designed for you. For everyone. Yes, everyone. 100% of WMATA Metrorail stations and rail cars are ADA accessible. In New York, only 27% of subway stations are accessible. Not that we’re counting.

Source: Metamodernism, YouTube

You find another bench and patiently await the arrival of your next train. The well-placed signage suggests a five-minute wait. You occupy yourself by studying the station’s art installation — Scenes of Washington, a painted mural depicting scenes of the nation’s capital. You’re reminded of all the art you’ve been treated to underground. “Tunnel Vision” at Bethesda, “Pulse” at Farragut North, “From a Model to a Rainbow” at Takoma, “The Glory of Chinese Descendants” at Gallery Place-Chinatown. You could go on. 

Max Freitch, courtesy of Marsha Mateyka Gallery

You realize that everything — from the intentional location of each stop to the layout of the stations, from the coffered ceilings to the terracotta tiles, from the artwork to the wayfinding — everything has been carefully and purposely designed to make your Metro journey as pleasant and convenient as possible. You think of the  congestion and chaos of the streets above and scoff. 

Matthew Shepetin ’24 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at m.r.shepetin@wustl.edu