Exhibition Reviews

"On Track: Transit and the American City." National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW, Washington, DC 20001.
     Temporary exhibition, Jan. 26–Oct. 27, 2002. 7,000 sq. ft. Mary Konsoulis and Kathleen Franz, curators; Ramee Gentry, curatorial associate; Jill Wiley White, exhibition educator; Leann Arndt, researcher; Patricia Chester, Chester Design Associates, Inc., designer.
     Internet: recap of exhibition, with some photographs <http://www.nbm.org/exhibits/current/transit.html> (Nov. 25, 2002).

Covering approximately seven thousand square feet of space and costing three hundred thousand dollars to produce, "On Track: Transit and the American City" was a temporary show that had lofty and noble ambitions. It aspired to be a challenging exhibition that examined the effects of transportation systems on the urban environment and, in the end, covered a lot of intellectual ground, exploring the physical, social, and cultural shape of American cities through the lens of transportation.	1
Visitors entered "On Track" through an introductory room, which was the most effective part of the exhibit. As they watched early films of city traffic from New York and San Francisco, they heard a modern audio loop on which the traffic reporter gave an update for the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. On the two side walls were large photo blowups that showed slivers of contemporary city photos interspersed with ones from the nineteenth century. Both of those elements reinforced the curators' point that the questions of yesteryear are also relevant to today's cities. The first room also introduced visitors to the show's three "metaphorical places": the Expanding City (late nineteenth century–1920s), the Suburban City (1920s–1960s), and the Regional City (1960s–present). Along the back wall of the room, panels that described Omaha, Nebraska's growth through the century served as an illustration of the three metaphorical places. Visitors were encouraged to use more than one of their senses, and the themes of the show were clearly laid out. The introduction was a well-designed and intelligent piece of exhibitry.	2
Unfortunately, the rest of the exhibition did not live up to the promise of the introductory segment. Although there were some effective elements in "On Track," the content and design would have been greatly improved by judicious editing. This exhibition did not believe in white space. The designer created an internal label hierarchy, but the amount of text on each panel was intimidating, and the sheer number of panels was overwhelming. The show read as if it were a book—albeit a well-written and nicely illustrated book—on the wall. While the physical design of "On Track" inhibited the visitors' comprehension of the topics at hand, there were some nice design touches. Three signature objects—a trolley, a car, and a Washington Metro car—paralleled the three metaphorical places and were well displayed. Other elements also added three-dimensionality. Throughout the space, panels were hung from wires reminiscent of overhead electric-trolley lines. A white fence surrounded a 1929 Ford, reinforcing the curators' point that the car was an agent of suburbanization. The show's video—which included car advertisements from the post–World War II era, films by Thomas Edison of the trolley-riding experience, footage of people protesting road building, and shots of what the driver sees from a Metro car—was also very effective. Such design elements gave visitors a sense of space and setting and served to draw people through the exhibit.	. . .