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John Tauranac (born 1939) writes on New York City history and architecture, teaches the subject and gives tours of the city, and designs city maps and transit maps.
His first published maps (1972 and 1973) were New York Magazine’s "Undercover Maps", which showed how to navigate passageways through and under buildings in Midtown and Lower Manhattan in order to stay dry in rain and warm in cold weather.
Tauranac wrote guidebooks for the Culture Bus Loops operated by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority as a freelance project for the Municipal Art Society (1973, 1974), whereupon he was hired by the MTA to write and edit "Seeing New York: The Official MTA Travel Guide," which included a depiction of the New York City Subway in a geographic light (1976). He went on to chair the MTA Subway Map Committee that designed the 1979 subway map, which, in addition to depicting the subway in a geographic perspective, simplified the system with the introduction of a color-coding system based on trunk lines. For his dual roles, he was awarded a commendation for design excellence by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Transportation. He has since designed dozens of maps, many under the Tauranac imprint, including Manhattan Block By Block: A Street Atlas.
Tauranac’s books include The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark, Elegant New York, Essential New York, and The View From the 86th Floor. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Observer, The Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, New York Magazine, Seaport Magazine, The Encyclopedia of New York City, and other publications.
Tauranac teaches New York City history and architecture at NYU's School of Continuing & Professional Studies.
For most of the twentieth century, official maps of the New York City Subway were geographic in the sense that they represented the actual coastline and selected topographical features such as parks, zoos, and stadiums. There was often some distortion to fit things in - Manhattan was often broadened, and Brooklyn twisted around toward the northeast, but the maps preserved the broad facts of the geography. From 1958 to 1978, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) conducted a twenty-year experiment with diagrammatic subway maps, which showed the topology of the subway network but dispensed with most of the topographical detail, schematized the coastline, and abstracted the subway lines onto a grid. John Tauranac brought this experiment to an end in 1979.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) was founded in 1968, and its first chairman, Dr William J. Ronan, sought to establish a modern brand image. Unimark International, in its New York office headed by Massimo Vignelli, gave him this through two things:
In 1974, Ronan was replaced as chairman by David Yunich, formerly Vice Chairman at Macy's department store. [4] [5] Yunich brought an explicit focus on marketing the subway service, saying at his swearing-in that he would examine "any innovative marketing idea" and "Transit marketing is not too different from offering a new line in men's shirts or automobiles". [6] He created a Marketing Department and appointed as its Director Claire McCarthy, who hired John Tauranac as contributing editor of a compendious volume "Seeing New York: The Official MTA Guide book" in time for the United States Bicentennial which brought an influx of visitors to New York. [7] The guidebook promoted the City of New York as a place to visit and enjoy, and promoted the subway as the means of getting around the city. Yunich also brought from Macy's his former colleague Fred Wilkinson (as Executive Officer for Passenger Services), who in 1975 formed the Subway Map Committee, [8] with the aim of designing a new subway map that would not simply tell riders how to get from one station to another - as the existing Vignelli map did, but would also promote the city and its subway, encouraging people to visit and explore it and to use the subway.
Claire McCarthy and senior manager William Allison required that the subway map in the Guidebook be geographic, so that it could also show the locations of visitor attractions. This requirement coincided with Tauranac's own personal preference for geographic maps. [9] It was, however, impossible to draw all the routes in Manhattan as separate colored lines because of the lack of space. Tauranac, therefore, had the map drawn with all subway lines in red. Which services ran on any given lines were indicated by route bullets, which were circles with the names of routes, such as 1,2,3, ... A,B,C,... etc. When Tauranac was made a member of the Subway Map committee, around December 1975, he brought this geographic style of map with him. About four prototype maps were constructed during 1975 [10] and tested on different demographic groups by Dr Arline Bronzaft and Michael Hertz. [11]
At the end of 1976, Wilkinson was assigned from Transit to be Executive Officer of Surface operations and stepped down from the Subway Map Committee. [12] For half a year, the committee did not meet; and then in the summer of 1977, Tauranac was assigned chair of the committee and meetings resumed. [13] Further map experiments were made, and in February 1978 Tauranac organised an exhibition entitled "The Good, The Bad ... The Better? A New York City Subway Map Retrospective" at the Cityana Gallery run by Benjamin Blom, exhibiting the committee's latest prototype map and offering a questionnaire for testing public reaction. [14] Visitors said they liked the geographic information but disliked the use of a single color for all subway lines. [15] In response, Tauranac then prepared a version with two colors, blue for the former IRT lines and red for the former BMT and IND lines. This was exhibited at the Cooper Union in April, when Tauranac debated with Massimo Vignelli in a public battle between the two schools of map-making. [16]
In September 1978, Tauranac met with Phyllis Cerf Wagner, head of the MTA Aesthetics Committee, and told her that the map project was "dead in the water" because he could not make the map he wanted — which was a trunk-colored scheme in which lines that diverge and converge retain the color of each trunk — because there was no funding to change to signage to match the change in the map. [17] Cerf Wagner was able to secure the funds, and in June 1978 the finished subway map was published — a geographic map with trunk-based colors — in time for the Diamond Jubilee, the subway's 75-year anniversary.
Tauranac led a committee of twelve people — comprising TA staff and members of the public — plus the three staff at Michael Hertz Associates. [18] Everybody contributed to the final design, and the map cannot be said to be designed by one individual. [19] The extant minutes of the Subway Map Committee show that Tauranac was responsible for several major design decisions - such as the use of a geographic style, the use of trunk-based color coding, the use of route markers, and the appearance of transfer stations. He also organised and coordinated the contributions of everybody in the group and liaised with TA and MTA staff to get approvals and funding and then to ensure that all the station and car signs in the subway network were changed to match the color scheme of the new map when it was launched in June 1979. He also defended the map in public debate with Massimo Vignelli in April 1978 and December 2010.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the consolidation of New York City, Tauranac was named a Centennial Historian of the City of New York by the Mayor’s Office for his work in history.
He serves on the advisory board of the Art Deco Society of New York and on the board of the Cornwall Connecticut Historical Society in Connecticut.
Tauranac received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University’s School of General Studies, where he majored in English literature, and his graduate degree from New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Science, where his area of study was American urban history.
He lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with his wife and daughter.
The C Eighth Avenue Local is a 19-mile-long (31 km) rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is blue since it is a part of the IND Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan.
The 4 Lexington Avenue Express is a rapid transit service in the A Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored forest green since it uses the IRT Lexington Avenue Line in Manhattan.
The J Nassau Street Local and Z Nassau Street Express are two rapid transit services in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Their route emblems, or "bullets", are colored brown since they use the BMT Nassau Street Line in Lower Manhattan.
The Astor Place station, also called Astor Place–Cooper Union on signs, is a local station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at Fourth Avenue, Cooper Square, and Astor Place between the East Village and NoHo, it is served by 6 trains at all times, <6> trains during weekdays in the peak direction, and 4 trains during late night hours.
The 68th Street–Hunter College station is a local station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 68th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is served by the 6 train at all times, the <6> train during weekdays in the peak direction, and the 4 train during late nights.
The W Broadway Local is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway's B Division. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored yellow since it uses the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan.
The Queensboro Plaza station is an elevated New York City Subway station at Queens Plaza in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. It is near the east end of the Queensboro Bridge, with Queens Boulevard running east from the plaza. The station is served by the 7 and N trains at all times, the W train on weekdays, and the <7> train rush hours in the peak direction.
The Cathedral Parkway–110th Street station is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located in the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights, Manhattan, at West 110th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard at the northwest corner of Central Park. The station is served by the B on weekdays, the C train at all times except nights, and the A train during late nights only.
New York City Subway nomenclature is the terminology used in the New York City Subway system as derived from railroading practice, historical origins of the system, and engineering, publicity, and legal usage. Important terms include lines, or individual sections of subway, like the BMT Brighton Line; services, like the B, which is a single train route along several lines; and stations, such as Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue, which connects multiple lines and services.
The M Queens Boulevard/Sixth Avenue Local is a rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored orange since it is a part of the IND Sixth Avenue Line in Manhattan.
The JFK Express, advertised as The Train to The Plane, was a limited express service of the New York City Subway, connecting Midtown Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport. It operated between 1978 and 1990. Passengers paid extra, premium fares to ride JFK Express trains. Its route bullet was colored turquoise and contained an aircraft symbol.
The Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street station is the northern terminal station of the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. Located at the intersection of 242nd Street and Broadway in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, it is served by the 1 train at all times. It is adjacent to Van Cortlandt Park to the east, Manhattan University, and the 240th Street Yard of the subway system, along with the affluent neighborhoods of Fieldston and Riverdale to the west.
The 72nd Street station is a local station on the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. It is located at 72nd Street and Central Park West on the Upper West Side. It is served by the B on weekdays, the C train at all times except nights, and the A train during late nights only.
Massimo Vignelli was an Italian designer who worked in a number of areas including packaging, houseware, furniture, public signage, and showroom design. He was the co-founder of Vignelli Associates, with his wife, Lella. His motto was, "If you can design one thing, you can design everything," which the broad range of his work reflects.
The Canal Street station is a local station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Canal and Varick Streets in the TriBeCa and SoHo neighborhoods of Manhattan, it is served by the 1 train at all times and by the 2 train during late nights.
The Ozone Park–Lefferts Boulevard station is an elevated terminal station on the IND Fulton Street Line of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of Lefferts Boulevard and Liberty Avenue in Queens. It serves as the terminus of the A route's Lefferts Boulevard branch. Despite its name, the station is not actually located in Ozone Park, but rather in the adjacent neighborhood of South Richmond Hill.
Michael Hertz Associates (MHA) is a New York City graphic design firm, best known for its 1979 design of the New York City Subway map and the station and subway car signage systems that the map engendered. The 1979 map, with some modifications, remains in use today. The firm specializes in maps and environmental graphics for mass transit systems.
Lella Vignelli was an Italian architect, designer, and businesswomen. She collaborated closely throughout much of her life with her husband Massimo Vignelli, with whom she founded Vignelli Associates in 1971.
Many transit maps for the New York City Subway have been designed since the subway's inception in 1904. Because the subway was originally built by three separate companies, an official map for all subway lines was not created until 1940, when the three companies were consolidated under a single operator. Since then, the official map has undergone several complete revisions, with intervening periods of comparative stability.
The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the mayor. It was created in 1924 to control city-owned and operated public transportation service within the New York City Transit System. The agency oversaw the construction and operation of the municipal Independent Subway System (IND), which was constructed shortly after the Board was chartered. The BOT later presided over the major transfers of public transit from private control to municipal control that took place in the 1940s, including the unification of the New York City Subway in 1940. In 1953, the Board was dissolved and replaced by the state-operated New York City Transit Authority, now part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
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