For a transit system often described as soulless, spartan and ugly, our Metro certainly photographs well. WMATA is conscious of the aesthetic criticism our system receives, however, and they appear ready to improve the appearance of new stations and add to efforts to distinguish stations from each other based on their surroundings.

WMATA is currently accepting applications from interested, qualified local artists to design site-specific art for the five Phase 1 stations of the Orange Line extension to Dulles (which includes four stations in Tysons and one in Reston). Applications are due by the end of June, at which time a panel of judges will select three finalists for each station and give them all $1,500 to use in preparing proposals. Each of the five winners will receive a maximum of $250,000 as a budget for the final art, which will be prepared and installed in coordination with the station design teams.

We certainly appreciate the idea — station art along the Green Line is striking compared to the advertisement filled concrete passageways along most of the transit system. This, of course, makes us wonder: Why not start sprucing up existing stations? If nothing else, we imagine it would be considerably easier to find rich neighborhood-oriented themes for stations in the District or near suburbs than it will be in Tysons, though it would be poignant to step off the train in far-flung Virginia and pass a mural portraying rows of used car lots, long since vanished.

Picture taken by bwill352.