Empire State Plaza

I decided to create my analysis around my work place. I work at the Empire State Plaza, or as it is sometimes known as ESP, the Capital Concourse, or just the plain “Concourse”. The area is an underground maze of corridors and tunnels to the unsuspecting. I am always helping the glossy eyed wanders find there way through this disaster of a design. 

The concourse connects the NYS Museum to the Executive Chamber, yes the Governors Executive Chambers. The concourse also connects the Legislative office building to the Empire State Convention center, sometimes referred to as the egg. While these buildings all exist above ground, the underground is what seems to the outsider, to be a maze.

Upon entering the concourse through many swinging and revolving brass framed doors:

You are greeted by granite and marble lined corridors that seem to stretch as far as the eye can see:

In the event you do not know where you are going can you identify the signage placed conveniently to guide you to your destination?

You will notice there is a square or cube like objects hanging from the ceiling in what looks to be far from where I am standing. In fact it is completely on the other side of the space I am standing in. There is no indication that I am going to find my way from that cube in the sky.  Our reading informed us that Information design is a field and approach to designing clear, understandable communications and that it is primarily concerned with clarity and understanding. Now upon entering the concourse the clarity and understanding of “where am I” in my opinion goes right out the doors I just came in. We also read that in a busy corridor people typically scan a setting by glancing at particular fixation points for less than two-tenths of a second.

As you can see the signs are a chocolate brown with white text and arrows. There is no color coding throughout the concourse. The feeling for the signage is governmental plain on a budget design. Below is an overhead sign found in the middle of the corridor, almost the convergence of all corridors?

These are the other way finding points within the concourse:

These examples paint a perspective that only a camera lens can offer, I used a wide angle lens to showcase more of the surroundings than just the signage. However, the point remains that the signage is in my opinion poor for the occasional tourist or just lost soul who should meander into the concourse. For all it is worth my Grandfather helped build this place in the 60’s, this my friends is 60’s era way finding at its finest. I wish for the sake of the state, there is some money invested into the concourse for some redesign of the way finding points to include color coded corridors and proper common symbols for the public transportation.

Below are the best references of proper information design found within the concourse.