Union Station Bus Shelters — Los Angeles, CA
The Metro Art Program Policy allocates a minimum of 0.5% of construction costs for transit capital projects for public art. In 1995, Metro installed “ReUnion”, a series of six artist designed bus shelters at Union Station through a federal intermodal transportation enhancement grant. Artists Kim Yasuda, Noel Korten, Torgen Johnson and Matthew Vanderborgh collaborated to develop bus passenger waiting areas which reference the social and natural history of the site and incorporate ideas about shelter, movement, evolution and change. The elegant glass and metal shelters balance delicately between metaphors of the natural and built environments. Overhead, articulated metal ribs meld with the glass to create an overall floating leaf form. Together the structures form a cloud-like pattern of movement and shelter along the length of the transit plaza. The project is on Metro-owned property and was funded through a partnership between Metro, Caltrans, and the USDOT; the artwork was funded through the project’s percent-for-art set aside.
