Opinion Eyes on the Street

Spring Garden station is awash in color

PlanPhilly staff

March 2, 2012

(Washes of color on the floor of the Spring Garden station. | Subway Spring by Flickr user phillytrax, Eyes on the Street Flickr group)

The Spring Garden station on the Broad Street Line recently got spruced up, and as part of the project the platform’s floor now has this very colorful abstract artwork by Margery Amdur.

The blog SEPTA Watch recalled that SEPTA issued a call for artists for this project in 2009, as part of the Arts in Transit program. SEPTA Watch calls the current installation underwhelming.

Initially the Art in Transit concept was for a mosaic floor. Amdur’s artwork, called Six Places in Motion, actually consists of several drawings printed on fabric, which were then embedded in resin along 4,000 square feet of the station floor. The floor is now awash in a bright, floral palette where commuters usually see drab gray. On her blog, Amdur wrote that she worked off of a Van Gogh paint-by-numbers kit for some design elements and took the floral cue from the name Spring Garden.

So, dear readers, what’s your take? Have you seen it in person? Do you think it’s an improvement for the drab subterranean space or is it a bit much?

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