When the Purple Line opens in 2022 (that’s the plan, anyway), all its 21 stations will have an individual visual identity thanks to Maryland’s Art-In-Transit program. You can see all the station designs (many of them still not finalized) here; below, you’ll see a selection of the sights along the new line’s 16-mile route, as well as some of the artists’ comments.

Bethesda

Artist: Elena Manferdini

Lyttonsville

Artists: David Hess and Curtis Woody

Hess’s design for this station calls for repurposing the Talbot Avenue bridge’s steel girders. The Purple Line endangered the bridge, which has great significance in local history. Hess proposes attaching water-jet-etched steel panels that show family photographs to the girders. Woody’s design calls for a mixed-media artwork in photo-collage style transferred to ceramic tile.

Silver Spring-Library

Artist: Andrea Dezsö

Adelphi Road-UMUC-UMD

Artists: Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton

Lee and Allbritton’s design will incorporate a data visualization of student headcount at University of Maryland University College locations in the US as well as in Europe and Asia.

College Park Metro-UMD

Artist: Lynn Basa

Basa’s design pays tribute to College Park Airport, the oldest continually operating airport in the world. The airport’s red-and-white motif is repurposed here as a way-finding aid.

Riverdale Park-Kenilworth Ave.

Artist: Mikyoung Kim

Kim’s “Pendulum Gateway” is planned as an interactive sculpture—”As people sit in the folded seats they cause the columns to sway and reflect a play of colored light above them,” the artist says.

Don’t Miss Another Big Story—Get Our Weekend Newsletter Our most popular stories of the week, sent every Saturday. Or, see all of our newsletters. By signing up, you agree to our terms