Page 79 - Spring_2018

ArchDC Spring 2018.qxp_Fall 2017 2/22/18 9:16 AM Page 77

Interior of the Walkway, as installed at 14th and U streets, NW.
Project: The Walkway (Vision Zero),
temporary structure now removed, Washington, DC
Architects: Michael Marshall Design, previously Marshall Moya Design
LED Lighting Designers/Programmers: Image Engineering
Electrical Contractor: Direct Electric
Programming Consultant: Rosie Storey
Waste Haulers: Selective Hauling LLC
Contractor: Gilbane

This idea coalesced in the form of an open design competition
sponsored by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities,
DDOT, and Age-Friendly DC. The competition brief solicited
public art concepts that would not only raise awareness of street
harassment but also provide the opportunity for data collection on
how people experience it.
Michael Marshall Design (MMD, then known as Marshall
Moya Design), a cross-disciplinary architecture and branding firm,
submitted a mixed-media, physical/digital hybrid design that
won the judges over. The competition entry, spearheaded by
Michael Marshall, AIA, NOMA, NCARB, and Zarela Mosquera,
envisioned an outdoor pavilion in the shape of a covered linear
walkway, open on both ends, with lighting, sound, and graphics
integrated into the design to create an immersive experience.
Visitors could text their responses to the exhibit, and contribute
their own stories of harassment to a digital archive
(www.wlkway.com).
The design team selected the 14th and U Street site (one of
two options in the competition brief) for its high level of street
traffic and variety of passersby. “In this location you get people
moving back and forth to Metro, commercial and residential, and
the [Reeves Center] government building,” said Marshall. In
addition, they were interested in engaging with the after-dark
crowd spilling out of restaurants and bars well past midnight
throughout the week.
The team began collecting anonymous stories of street
harassment on the website in 2016, while the design of the
physical environment was finalized. The pavilion, fabricated on
site through generous labor and material donations by the Gilbane
Construction Company, opened to the public in January 2017.
The Walkway’s bowtie shape was inspired by the Venturi
effect in fluid dynamics. (A simple example of the Venturi effect: a
river flows faster in a narrow canyon and slower in a wide plain.)
Marshall explained, “The shape of the structure starts as a wide
aperture that tapers back into the center—to give a claustrophobic
feeling of being watched.” The corridor narrows from 11 feet wide
at the entry to seven feet at the central pinch point; in tandem,
the ceiling slopes down from nine feet high at the openings to
seven feet at the center.
The walls of The Walkway, framed with two layers of steel
studs with diagonal cross-bracing, were clad in polycarbonate
panels. Transparent below waist level (to allow for visibility from
the outside) and translucent above, the panels were backlit by
LED lights located within the wall cavity. Photographic portraits
of people, vertically sliced and interwoven with one another, were
printed onto acrylic and mounted onto the interior face panels.
Complementing these larger-than-life faces, first-person narratives
of street harassment were integrated into the wall graphics.

Photo © John Keith Photography MAKING ROOM FOR ART 77