Project Description

This artwork was a collaboration between artists Kim Yasuda, Noel Korten, Torgen Johnson, and Matthew Vanderborgh.

This artist team designed a series of six bus passenger waiting areas which reference the social and natural history of the site and incorporate ideas about shelter, movement, evolution and change. The elegant constructions of glass and metal balance delicately between metaphors of the natural and built environments. Overhead, articulated metal ribs meld with the glass to create an overall floating leaf form. Together the structures form a cloud-like pattern of movement and shelter along the length of the transit plaza.

Artist Statement

“We were interested in allusions to flight, marine technology, nomadic architecture, organic forms and the revival of the now-concrete Los Angeles River.”

About the Artist

TORGEN JOHNSON was born and raised in California.  Johnson has worked with artist Kim Yasuda on public art projects including a social service center in Santa Barbara County. Johnson received a Master of Architecture in Urban Design and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is principal architect at Johnson Design.

NOEL KORTEN is an artist and curator. He has completed public art projects with the City of Carlsbad and Amtrak. He served as Director of Exhibitions at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery from 1994 to 2005.

MATTHEW VANDER BORGH is a practicing architect and has worked on numerous public commissions including Boston’s Central Artery Project. He is director of C Concept Design.

KIM YASUDA was born and raised in California. Yasuda has worked with artist Torgen Johnson on public art projects that include a social service center in Santa Barbara County and a series of bus shelters for Metro Gateway Transit Center. Yasuda is a professor of art at UC Santa Barbara.