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An architect made a brilliant new way to navigate New York City subway stations

Drake Baer

2015-09-29T14:57:00Z

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Every weekday, 5.6 million people take the New York subway.

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Navigating the system's 469 stations isn't an easy task, especially if you're a newbie.

But architect Candy Chan has a plan for changing that — with a mapping project she calls Project Subway NYC.

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In 2010, Chan moved from Hong Kong ...

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... to New York.

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In Hong Kong, she grew up with helpful maps of subway stations, complete with numbered exits. "It's a really crazy system that helps people get to where they need to go," Chan says.

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But in New York, there aren't any such maps. You have to ask strangers for directions. So Chan figured she'd make her own maps.

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In June, Chan started on a "pretty rudimentary" geographic process: walking lengths of subway stations with a clipboard, pencil, and camera, counting the number of steps as she went.

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She would take photos to help record-keeping, too.

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The first map was Columbus Circle. Most stations take many visits to get a complete map, Chan says.

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The first step is walking from the entrance to the turnstile of each exit. Here's Times Square, which took two weeks.

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Then once she has the outside mapped, she makes a printout of her incomplete map, and heads through the turnstile to document the interior. Here's Herald Square.

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"After an hour, it’s exhausting," Chan says. Here's 23rd Street, which only took two days.

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Union Square is the last of the maps thus far. Chan says that the reception has been mostly positive, and she'll continue the project if there's enough demand.

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"I like to be able to explain things," Chan says. "If words cant do it, I like to draw it. People say, you could publish a book, make an app. I don't know yet. At the end of the day, I’m just a person who enjoys drawing."

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