The New York Subway Map Debate

The discovery of a lost audio recording sheds new light on a pivotal event in design history: the 1978 debate at Cooper Union between designer Massimo Vignelli and cartographer John Tauranac over the future of the NYC Subway Map. To the cheers and boos of a raucous audience of designers, transit officials and disgruntled subway riders, Vignelli, Tauranac and a panel of eight other experts argued. It was a battle of abstraction versus realism, simplicity versus complexity. Insults were hurled and sides were taken. But the full substance of that evening’s discussion was undocumented, because no known recording existed… until now. This new book features the full transcript of the debate and the discussion that followed, along with never-before-seen photographs of the evening by Stan Ries, plus new interviews and context. The New York Subway Map Debate opens a hyper-specific window into a moment in New York design history and the eternal struggle between form and content. The New York Subway Map Debate Edited by Gary Hustwit, photographs by Stan Ries, foreword by Paula Scher Designed by Order Published by Gary Hustwit and Standards Manual