Art and Transit

Nadine Lee: It's early morning. The sky is still gray, and your mind is already on the day ahead, and then you notice something unexpected, a burst of color, a column wrapped in bold colors with big comic book letters.

Nadine Lee: Or maybe it's evening and you're headed home, and the station glows gently.

Light shining through sculpted leaves like a quiet echo of the nature that used to live here. These moments aren't accidents.

They're part of a larger vision, a belief that public spaces should inspire, delight, and tell the stories of the neighborhoods they serve.

Nadine Lee: Today on Mobility in Motion, we're exploring the role of art and transit, and I'm your host, DART CEO Nadine Lee.

Here at DART, our Chief Architect, David Ehrlicher, oversees that vision.

David Ehrlicher: My role here at DART over the last 20 years is oversight of design and construction contracts on large, complex transit facilities.

The part of your day where you are moving from one part of the city ought to be a delightful experience, and I think in addition to providing for safe operation and functionality it ought to create that moment of delight in every rider's day.

David Ehrlicher: This morning I boarded the station on the green line at—oh my goodness, it was a new station for me and it's near Love Field. And because it's near Love Field, home of Southwest Airlines, the station artist incorporated aluminum cladding on the columns. And they showed the history of aviation in small laser cut etchings in the aluminum column covering where a biplane morphs into a modern jet liner. And those station columns are backlit, so they really come to life at night as the light shines through those cutouts.

In the 1980s as DART was putting together its approach to the light rail system, a vision for an art and design program was established with two main objectives.

The first main objective was to give people in the community an opportunity to have a voice in the final design process. And the second reason is stewardship. We find that when a community has input into the final design of a fixed facility, they take ownership of that fixed facility and we reap the benefits in terms of care, reduced vandalism, reduced maintenance problems, better housekeeping.

Nadine Lee: Later this year, the Silver Line will open. It's a new 26-mile commuter rail connecting Plano to Dallas-Fort Worth airport, and seven other cities, giving people faster and easier ways to move across North Texas.

But it's more than just tracks and trains. Along the way, artists have helped transform these new stations into places that reflect the spirit of their communities: places full of color, light, and meaning.

In Plano, artist Gene Dillard brings pop art and vibrant energy to the Silver Line, turning the platform into something unexpected, joyful, and totally unique.

Gene Dillard: I wanted the design to come out of the neighborhood, have some relevance to the neighborhood. It was in an area of a lot of light industrial work, residential. It had a lot of churches and schools, parks, and actually a high-tech corridor. So, I was interested in trying to find a concept that would encompass all of those things.

When we were observing the location of the site for the station, we couldn't help but notice a gigantic power station or substation right next to it. And so we had to either decide to ignore it or to embrace it. And the one we went with was to really embrace it.

And so we started looking at different dimensions of power, and that's where we came up again, like the power of technology, the power of education, the power of nature, power of faith, power of electricity. So each one of those columns is brightly colored and has sort of that energy burst design on each column.

One of the art styles that I develop is something I call cowboy pop art. And it's based on like western comics and that sort of thing.

Each one of those columns have a big, pop art word on them, like POW, or ZOOM or ZAP or WOW.

At the top of each column. There's an emphasis on a particular word, and it's always power. Like the power of technology, the power of education, the power of nature, power of people, power of faith.  So the idea was to have each one of those columns represent a dimension in the neighborhood.

Nadine Lee: Moving west to Addison at the Knoll Trail Station is something completely different from artist Pamela Nelson.

Pamela Nelson: The terrain around there, the streams and the rocks and the trees and the roots, a lot of beautiful terrain. And it's that nature was there a long time before people started building condos and offices and homes.

There was a very old, black Baptist church that was there, a missionary church at Preston and Spring Valley, and now it is a community center.

But there was very little besides just this beautiful land and that's what I put on the windscreens: photographs of the area to show that we're just on top of all this beauty here, and it'll last a lot longer than us. The rocks have been here since we don't know when. And the limestone. And I just think nature shows us how to work together. Like the trees work together. And I think public transportation brings us all together too. That's how I got the idea of using the leaf pattern on the columns.

And I wanted it lit from within because I figured a lot of people are coming to commute when it's still dark and coming home when it's still dark. And I thought the light coming through the leaves would be a nice beacon. Those are actually olive leaves and that's a symbol for peace. So, I really just wanted it to feel like I'm home. It's peaceful. There, there's nature all around me, even though I'm in the middle of commerce.

So I hope it does add a kind of generosity to the experience of going to the rail station.

David Ehrlicher: It is not far from, white Rock Creek.

Where the Silver Line travels over a bridge is a moment of nature in the city. An oasis in the city, just to provide a little quieter break in the action along the Silver Line.

The way we run this program, it starts at the beginning of the design effort. So it's not like we finish the design then open up a can of art and pour it on top. Our process brings together representatives from the community early on so they could work with an artist and an architect.

They tell us what's important about their neighborhood. They organize their thoughts about what's important into an artistic value statement that serves as our touchstone throughout the design process.

And then they evaluate various materials, colors and patterns to help bring that vision to life. So in that respect, the whole station, the walking service, the column covers, the paint colors, the canopy, they all work together to become one larger work of art.

Brandon Figliolino: Placing public art creates a unique and enriching environment for people who interact with it or use our buses and trains here in Denver.

And it also adds beauty and a sense of calm and you can create a sense of security. When you see something really beautiful in a space, it can help you feel more at ease and at home.

My name is Brandon Figliolino. I am the manager of Community Engagement Programming at RTD in Denver.

Pauline Haberman: And I am Pauline Haberman. I am RTD’s project manager of special projects.

I would say the Art and Transit program at RTD and then at other transit agencies, they go beyond just enhancing the aesthetics of transit stations. Art and transit also aims to improve the overall experience for riders, and it fosters a sense of community.

We had a young local artist named Beamer Torres. He was a muralist. And when he was in his teens, had gotten into some trouble for artwork on buildings and different things until someone took him aside and said, you know you can get paid for doing this. You can make this your career.

And a real light bulb went on. And the specific project I worked with him on is at RTDs National Western Center Station. And he went into an elementary school in an area that had a lot of construction, highway construction around and had become isolated. But they were very dependent on the transit as well, they were.

And so he sat with the fourth and fifth grade students and let them talk about their neighborhood, their community, and what's important to them. And they all had colored markers and paper and drew pictures. And from those, he created his art. And then, they are able to now go to those stations and see their art on art wraps at the station platforms.

Brandon Figliolino: At our Central Park station in Denver we have an art installation piece called, Balloon Man Running, which is a 12-foot structure that is all white. That looks like it's two really long balloons that are tied to look like a human and that piece is very popular and well loved by the community. And it's been out in the elements for almost 10 years. And so in the fall of 2024, we had to remove it, for maintenance and repairs. And the community, they were afraid that we were getting rid of Balloon Man Running.

And the local paper even ran a story saying: The balloon man is coming back. He's gonna run right back to where he was. And so it was really exciting to see that kind of reaction from people saying, “Where's balloon man? Why isn't he back? When, when are we getting him back? I miss him.” 

Nadine Lee: One thing that's different about creating art for transit stations is thinking about wear and tear.

Pamela Nelson: There's a big difference. And you also have to think about the weather. You have to think about destruction, or vandalism, but mostly you think about the weather and how long materials will last and how long before this needs to be updated.

I did the American Airline Center too and that gets so much traffic with people getting on and off for the games and all the big events there and nothing has had to be replaced or refurbished that I know about.

You just have to. think about man and nature and what all can happen.

Pamela Nelson: My dad worked for a Mobile Oil Company and it used to be called Magnolia, where the Magnolia Hotel is. That used to be the tallest building downtown. And Pegasus, the flying Red Horse they had up on top of the building. He took me up there. I got to go when I was probably eight years old and see the horse up close and it was just about evening. I'll never forget it. And I looked at downtown Dallas and I thought, I love this town. I just love it.

I really feel like the city is part of me and I'm part of the city, and I, I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I've gotten to do this. It’s my 1, 2, 3, 4 … It's my fifth DART station is the Silver Line.

So that's a very, very big privilege.

Nadine Lee: Thank you, Pamela Nelson and Gene Dillard, for expressing your love of Dallas through your art. And thank you to DART’s chief architect David Ehrlicher, as well as Brandon Figliolino and Pauline Haberman from RTD Denver.

The creative visions of Pamela, Gene and David and many others add so much to the experience of DART. The Silver Line will open later this year, and we can't wait to experience their art and that of so many other talented artists.

Mobility in Motion is a podcast from DART. This episode was produced by The Glue and Neille Ilel, with music by BC Campbell.

We'd love to hear from you, especially your burning transit questions. If you have ideas for future episodes or anything else you'd like to ask us about DART or transit, please email us at [email protected] and we might answer in a future episode.

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