Image edited by author
Highway Gallery, Louvre Abu Dhabi
“If traffic won’t come to the Art, why not bring Art to the traffic?”
Located in the United Arab Emirates, the Louvre Abu Dhabi is a museum of art and civilization. With 260,000 square feet of museum campus and 86,000 square feet of galleries, it made itself the largest art museum in the Arabian Peninsula.
“On the occasion of the UAE Innovation Month, on the E/11 Sheikh Zayed Road that connects Dubai to Abu Dhabi, ten huge billboards of 9x6 meters were placed, representing giant reproductions of the most famous pieces in the museum's collection.” —Kooness.
It is typical to use street signage to keep visitors informed. However, the Louvre took this strategy to the next level: the museum used billboards to narrate the path toward the newly launched museum. They also found the “Highway Gallery” program to keep visitors “in tune.”
In partnership with the Abu Dhabi Media Company, Radio 1 FM, Classic FM, and Emarat FM, TBWA/RAAD created this program to complement ten significant art prints on EE/11 Sheikh Zayed highway. This innovative move enhanced the boring highway-driving experience. It also made drivers subconsciously lower their driving speed.
How long is the [Highway Gallery] program?
Each year, eighty-five percent of Abu Dhabi’s visitors come from Dubai. It is about 146km (91 miles) from Dubai International Airport to Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Louvre Abu Dhabi is known for its geometric-patterned dome: a 180-meter-diameter, earthquake-resistant roof structure. I have not visited the place myself. However, we can imagine from this map that traveling the 36-mile-long route from exit 376/Kizad to the Louvre Museum must be pretty dull. Therefore, the museum curated audio stories at each art billboard for visitors with continuous visual and audio stimulation of the arts on this 36-mile drive. While visitors approach each billboard, they can tune their radio to a three to four-minute-long segment of the artwork's history.
Contrary to the museum's grand gesture, which captures all collections underneath one roof, this innovative audio program has expanded the arts and culture beyond the museum walls.
Aqua Tower, Chicago
Podium tower structure and its site approach
The Aqua Tower has a two-story low-rise retail podium at the street level. Its roof garden at the podium pushes this building further towards the north. This gesture maximizes the southern sun exposure for the roof garden, enhances the foreground for visitors from the south, and leaves an opening for pedestrians to see Lakeshore East Park, another urban-type neighborhood garden.
A Natural-born Wayfinding Building
Many people are impressed by the Aqua tower's undulated exterior- its provocative aesthetic draws the public’s attention. Moreover, it is an architectural result of a multifaceted approach to its surrounding environment. For engineering, the rippled sculptural condition is to break the wind pressure. For the tower's residents, the various-shaped balconies extend the view and maximize solar shading (for the interior); and for the outdoor lovers, its concise mess minimizes the shadows on the roof garden and park ground.
However, none of them has discussed one added advantage: the tower's wayfinding characters.
You may wonder why I give this tower such a label. This tower is not visible from the Monroe Harbor, nor is it noticeable from the Chicago River. It is neither the tallest tower within the Chicago Loop.
View Aqua Tower from a boat at Chicago River
Approach Aqua Tower from Aon Center- able to see complete building profile.
View Aqua Tower from corner of Aon Center (N Columbus Drive and E Randolph Street intersection)- curvature texture of building skin becomes more noticeable.
Park access, roof garden and low-rise retail podium set a foreground for Agua Tower. The roof garden at south made pedestrians easier to capture building’s entire profile. Lake Shore East Park is at a lower level. Visitors would able to see the park feature from the street level.
Tower's unique location leads to Lakeshore East Park
If we draw a line along Michigan Avenue at the Chicago Loop, St. Regis Chicago is the tallest, and Aon Center is the second tallest. The Aqua Tower only becomes visible when visitors arrive at the North Columbus Drive and East Randolph intersection. The front plaza of the Aon Center opens up a gap and sets an ideal stage for the Aqua Tower.
Imagine visitors who finished sightseeing at Millennium Park and planned to return to their hotel next to the river. The primary route they would take was to walk towards the Aon Center. Once they arrive at the Aon Center, it is inevitable to spot this curved building. Through the pathway in front of the building, visitors could discover Lakeshore East Park.
Lakeshore East Park, completed in 2005, is 4.6 acres of a master-planned mixed-use urban park. Appeared to be the core of Lakeshore East's donut-configuration development; the park is the City's first and currently only free wireless park. It is also a dog-friendly park, allowing un-leashed dogs to walk in the park freely.
A combination of visibility and walkability in the neighborhoods
The Aqua Tower's distinctive exterior marks the modern development of Lakeshore East. Not only is its wayfinding character, but the ample sidewalks around this development and retail cluster make "on-foot" an appealing means to travel.
You might also find that it coincidentally meets the following LEED-ND criteria for walkable streets, such as:
90% of new buildings have functional entries onto the circulation networks or public space.
More than 15% of the block length of the circulation network has a minimum building-height-to-street centerline ratio of one to one and a half.
Continuous sidewalks are provided along 90% of circulation networks. These sidewalks are more than eight feet wide on mixed-use blocks.
Less than 20% of its circulation around the blocks faces directly to service bay openings.
What's the takeaway?
We often see "way-finding" technique used on signage, and often forget that the building itself can also serve as a wayfinding feature. When planning, it is important to understand how visitors would approach their final destination when designing wayfinding features. With visitors' speed in mind, perhaps we can make more creative solutions for our cities than ever before.
Notes and References:
Many municipalities use billboards to educate about road safety. These billboards also provide visual stimulus, so drivers'eyes will not get tired on the long and monotonous highway. Examples such as massive billboard media at the 2014 NYC DOT’s Vision Zero initiative or digital billboards at the 2018 Sacramento Vision Zero Campaign.
What is Vision Zero? It is an ethical strategy aimed at eliminating all traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries while promoting safe, equitable mobility for all road users. Originating in Sweden, it shifts responsibility from individual drivers to traffic planners, creating a forgiving infrastructure that anticipates errors with no fatal consequences. You can also find the most recent Montgomery County Vision Zero Implementation Update here.
“Louvre Abu Dhabi Uses Billboards and Radio to Give Highway Gallery Tours”, Adweek.
“Louvre Abu Dhabi -Highway Gallery”, a video from Alexandrer Pinerda.
“Aqua tower line of sight experiment”, a video from Studio Gang