BMW Group DesignworksUSA Takes Design Excellence to City Streets with Introduction of Landscape Forms Metro40

Forward-thinking collection of furnishing elements for urban transit accentuates design excellence and user-friendly solutions for greater well-being in a seamless future of mobility.

Los Angeles, September 10, 2009… People are in motion all around the globe. Managing people in motion and helping cities provide the comfortable, attractive, high-quality facilities and amenities required to build a broader constituency for public streetscapes and public transit was the starting point for the partnership between BMW Group DesignworksUSA and Landscape Forms, North America’s leading designer and manufacturer of site furniture for outdoor spaces.  This first collaboration creates a range of essential furnishing elements for urban transit cores. The global collection which will be sold under the name Metro40 is the most complete collection on the market and includes furniture, shelters, lighting, and amenities, and has been developed for use by city planners and architects to help global urban centers elevate the livability, quality of experience, design appeal and overall image of their public transit systems.

DesignworksUSA’s experience in automotive and other types of design for mobility, from airplanes to trains to yachts, provides a comprehensive understanding of global transportation demands.  Additionally, DesignworksUSA is known as experts in translating a company’s brand values and business benefits into emotional design statements.  Landscape Forms brings expertise in urban streetscape furniture and amenities of exceptional quality.  Both firms share a deep commitment to design excellence and sustainability in materials, structures and processes, all of which is apparent in Metro40.

“Bringing great design to public, seemingly anonymous spaces such as transit shelters promotes a very positive, personal impact on people’s moods and daily quality of life,” says Verena Kloos, President, BMW Group DesignworksUSA. “Urban gentrification projects such as the new High Line park in Lower Manhattan demonstrate the importance and value of making cities more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing for their citizens, and the exploration of this dynamic made the Metro40 project with Landscape Forms particularly compelling for DesignworksUSA,” she concludes. 
 
Global Function and Aesthetics
DesignworksUSA’s multidisciplinary studio in Munich led the design with input from the Singapore and Los Angeles studios to develop Metro40.  DesignworksUSA provided product design, strategy, and research.  Metro40 sets a new standard for function and aesthetics in the transit site furniture category.  Creating a signature style for Metro40 is a daunting task when one considers the multitude of environments where it must appear in sync, and “at home,” with its surroundings.  Cultural behaviors vary tremendously from city to city, as does architecture and climate. The extreme requirements of wear and tear are also a major consideration.  Further, all products were designed in accordance with Landscape Forms’ strict environmental standards for BIFMA and LEED certification.   

Details in Design
Inspired by mobility, Metro40 has a dynamic design language that expresses the central themes of modern transit: movement and flow, continuity and change.  As a result, graceful, continuous shapes are integrated into all elements of the collection. The dynamic, organic profiles twist and wrap in unexpected ways to cause visual excitement and tension. Accelerating curves create a sense of positive motion and energy, and give each individual piece an element of surprise. Since these products will be typically in use for 10 –15 years, the design language integrates both contemporary and future contexts for a timeless effect.
 
While the elements of the Landscape Forms Metro40 share a common design vocabulary, DesignworksUSA has endowed each piece with a unique personality and expressiveness.  Some are immediate eye catchers intended for the foreground, whereas others are more discreet to serve as the background.
 
Metro40 product overview:
• Connect: Pedestrian scale transit shelter designed for bus or light rail. Includes optional perch, space saving leaning rail, and glass protection panels that are attached invisibly which seems to float above the ground giving the shelter a very light look.
 
• Rest: A series of backed and backless benches for use inside the shelter, as well as independent of it, for streetscapes, plazas, and other urban sites. The iconic benches’ thick to thin transitions create flowing planes for seamless integration of metal and wood materials. Optional dividers create individual sitting space and take into account the varying cultural behaviors in the public environment.
 
• Ride: The bike rack interprets the design language in a more discreet nuance. Its continuous loop design strongly communicates the idea of connectedness.

• Collect: Litter receptacles, with multiple utility feature variations, have a simple loop that holds a floating volume container.

• Hi Glo: The 12-foot tall pedestrian light is designed as decorative lighting for sidewalks and shelter areas. Unique Landscape Forms solar LED technology works with the double base metal planes that twist and rotate up to create fixtures that provide vital illumination in a sculptural presence.

• Lo Glo: The 3-foot tall decorative lighting along pathways and alleys. Applies the same design features as the Hi Glo at a smaller scale.

• Show: A display structure designed to house advertising, signage and transit info. A metal loop structure with a floating graphic panel echoes the design of the shelter.
 
• Stop: Bollards in fixed or removable versions designed for traffic control. These stable cylindrical pieces can be arranged in a variety of patterns on site.

About BMW Group DesignworksUSA
BMW Group DesignworksUSA provides design strategy, research, development, sustainability consulting, brand communications, 3D modeling, and color, materials, and finish to many of the world’s great brands.  In addition to being the creative partner to BMW Group, which includes BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, additional DesignworksUSA clients include Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Starbucks, Boeing Business Jets, Embraer, Pilatus, John Deere, Advanced Medical Optics and BAVARIA Yachts.  The company was founded in 1972 by Charles W. Pelly in Malibu, California, and acquired by BMW Group in 1995.  Since 2004, President Verena C. Kloos has led DesignworksUSA’s strategy and operations, which now includes design studios in Los Angeles, Munich, and Singapore.  With global resources and clients across a spectrum of forward-thinking industries, DesignworksUSA has an unparalleled understanding of consumers and the world of design that surrounds them, both today and many years into the future. www.designworksusa.com

About Landscape Forms
Landscape Forms is the industry’s leader in design and manufacture of site furniture, outdoor lighting and accessories, and was recently named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the Top 15 Small Workplaces in the United States. Since its founding in 1969 the company has earned a reputation for excellent design, high quality products and exceptional service. Clients include municipalities; transit centers; corporate, college and health care campuses; and familiar brand leaders like Boeing, Cisco Systems, Disney, Sprint, American Airlines, Herman Miller and Nike.  The Landscape Forms U.S. headquarters is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The company has sales offices throughout North America, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Southern Europe. www.landscapeforms.com

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