Houston, Texas
Museum District Station for Metro Light Rail

MaggiBattalino is the artist chosen by the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County, METRO and Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum to Design the Houston, Texas Museum District Stations for Light Rail.

Rationale for Design Enhancements

My vision for the Museum District station is an interactive sculpture. This neighborhood community of people, health sciences, art, architecture, learning, history and places of worship is dynamic, interactive, educational and inspiring.

As you approach the station, your first awareness will be the simultaneous presence of both the platform and the canopy, identified by the repetition of contrasting circular elements. Colored, textured concrete in the platform below, via transparency, the brightness of light and space flowing through the fluid design of the glass canopy overhead is completed by the dimension of interactive human space between surfaces, creating an ever changing series of joyful moments experienced and savored by the individual.

When you step off the train, you have the opportunity to be an integral part of this performance, whether you are standing in the human dimension sized circles on the platform, moving through the space, sitting on benches, leaning on the rail, finding your direction by viewing the station maps, or observing you surroundings.

Maggi Battalino, Artist

 

About the Project: Based on her portfolio, extensive art practice, and educational background, Maggi Battalino was chosen to be responsible for the look and feel of the Museum District Light Rail Station. This 7 1/2 mile segment of Metro Light Rail is one of the cities most ambitious experiments in civic art, a gallery in pieces. In 2000, Metro and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston put out a call for artists interested in the honor of designing the stations. The concept selected for the Museum District Stations, Scale and Perception, includes the energetic glass canopy overhead and the color concrete platform below, each an integral part of the overall design. The stain glass design for the overhead canopy began as a site-specific painting, 1/3 the size of the finished glass you see in the station. The full color image of the painting was then printed on a layer of film and sandwiched between layers of glass. A platform designed with repeated circles in colored concrete was chosen to complement the flow of the canopy and unify the overall station sculpture space completed by the presence of people. The Museum District Stations are the result of a successful collaboration of artists, architects and engineers.