KGPdesign studio

KGP was invited to participate in a private design competition by WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) to provide alternative entrance canopy designs at five Metro Rail Stations in architecturally sensitive locations in Washington, DC. These locations include the Arlington Cemetery, Smithsonian, Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter, Judiciary Square, and the U Street/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro Stations. All five of these locations are located on land managed by the National Park Service, and carry great historical significance and architectural sensitivity. NPS wanted to see alternatives to the prototypical Metrorail canopies on these locations to create entrance canopies that had a minimal visual presence while providing the required rain coverage for the escalator entrances at these five stations. We developed three different canopy design concepts and applied them to the five different station entrances. Those concepts include a Branching Structure that blends in with its wooded surroundings, a V-Structure reminiscent of the prototypical Metro canopy, and Glass Structure that dissolves into the landscape.