Purple Line Gets More Colorful

A Purple Line station on Campus Drive will one day shelter riders waiting to board a light-rail train, but it’s already turning a section of the University of Maryland into a kaleidoscope of (reflected) color.

“Chromazone,” created by Austin- and New York City-based artist collaborative Legge Lewis Legge, is the first completed piece of the Art-in-Transit program, which has commissioned public art for each of the 21 stations on the Purple Line, the state transit project that will build a light rail stretching from New Carrollton to Bethesda. Five of the Purple Line’s stops are on or around the University of Maryland’s campus; the entire route is scheduled to open in December 2027.

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“Chromazone” is a canopy of colored glass ranging from UMD colors red and yellow to the purple of the Purple Line. The colors aren’t just pretty—they’re functional. On each side of the street, the front of the trains will stop at the purple section of the canopies. “It subtly shows you which direction the train is going,” said Murray Legge, one of the project’s designers.

The artwork is dynamic, becoming brighter or more subdued depending on sunshine or cloud coverage. “It projects light throughout the station area and on the people waiting for the train,” said Legge.

A committee comprising representatives from the Maryland Transit Administration, Purple Line Transit Partners, arts councils, UMD architecture Professor Ronit Eisenbach and the communities surrounding the Purple Line chose Legge’s design—and the others along the route—from the hundreds submitted in response to a request for proposals.

The other UMD stations will feature botanic-inspired sculptures, kaleidoscopic pylons and pieces that take inspiration from the aviation history of the area and the College Park Airport.