Figuring Out Pittsburgh
In 1990, Informing Design published what became the fastest selling regional title in Western Pennsylvania history: the “Pittsburgh Figured Out” atlas. In 1993, city leaders asked us to extend our mapping insights into a Wayfinder Sign System for Pittsburgh’s notoriously confusing street network. The Pittsburgh Wayfinder System of 1,500+ traffic signs may be the largest such system installed in this country in the past 20 years; System encompasses nearly all of the city’s 80 neighborhoods and has been actively maintained and expanded for over 10 years; System is based on mapping of neighborhood-to-neighborhood routes that results in a coherent pattern of travel,
city-wide.
“Exit-Finder” traffic signs mark out these travel routes (blue signs with color bands above). “Site-Finder” traffic signs then point the way from community routes into landmark destinations (magenta sign below).
