The New York Subway Map Debate

The discovery of a lost audio recording sheds new light on a pivotal event in design history.

The New York Subway Map Debate documents a pivotal event in design history: the 1978 debate between designer Massimo Vignelli and cartographer John Tauranac over the future of the NYC Subway Map. The book features the full transcript and discussions that followed (made possible by the recent discovery of a lost audio tape of the event) along with never-before-seen photographs of the evening by Stan Ries.

The New York Subway Map Debate opens a hyper-specific window into a moment in New York design history and the eternal battle between form and content.

Edited by filmmaker and design historian Gary Hustwit, with a foreword by designer Paula Scher.