HAVING roamed Governors Island for the first time in a few years, my mission was to pay attention to the older infrastructure. I first stopped on the island at Christmas season in 2004 for a Christmas tree lighting and coffee at the Officers’ Center, and then again in 2005 when a lot of the 1950s-era apartment buildings for personnel stationed on the island were still standing and much of the island was still closed to the public. I plan on writing a lengthier piece, but I may wait till after I go back in midweek in November; when I was there on Labor Day 2024, it was crowded indeed on the final day of the summer season. The island is open year round, but with shorter hours in the off season, and the hills and ziplines on the south end are closed from September to April or May; I have no interest in the newer additions, in any case.
In my first visits to Governors Island, I was fascinated by the street signage (Governors Island has its own system of roads, with most named to honor military personnel). The signs were blue and white and were stacked perpendicularly. Other street names are explained on bronze plaques set on boulders. Those are still in place, but the older street signs have been replaced by the example seen above, with lettering that looks like paper clips twisted to resemble alphabet letters. Informational and directional signs are brown with white letters, while street signs, shown here, are white with black letters on cylindrical posts. (If you’re curious, street lighting on the island is two or three different styles of post top.)
The font is called Guppy Sans and was developed by Pentagram for use on the island. I’ll have to see if it gains wider usage elsewhere. This page gives you a good idea of what Governors Island signage looks like and how the font is employed.
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9/3/24
3 comments
I like the font, but it might be like many others which will, within a generation, look too “quaint” and be replaced.
I would assume that the street signs and other infrastructure on Governor’s Island is like that because it was originally owned by the US military hence not being subject to the NYC DOT.
Governors Island was a US Army installation and then a US Coast Guard facility. As such, NYCDOT had no jurisdiction on it. When New York City took possession of some 150 acres, it created The Trust for Governors Island to manage it. (The remaining 22 acres belong to the US Government as Monuments, etc.) It is the Trust that is responsible for planning, operations and development, including street signs.