​The Facilities/Planning and Architectural Services office at Dartmouth College asked Charles Gibson to design a lobby directory and to upgrade the signage for the SOM-designed Kiewit Computation Center. CGD responded with a kiosk that integrated the directory functions of orientation plan and personnel lists with bulletin boards, counter space for Mac terminals, publication racks, and storage space. Previously these functions had been served by an ad hoc congestion of furniture and make-shift signage. The kiosk’s brochure racks take on a subliminal reading as oversize vents in a mainframe computer, making an ironic allusion to the mainframe computers housed in the building’s core.

Office signs addressed a similar challenge: to clean-up and consolidate the message making and ID needs of each occupant previously serviced by an accretion of name slots, message boards, and laser prints. The solution provided each office with an ID panel and integral miniature chalk board and tray.

The overhead directional signage provided concise, color-coded wayfinding cues for circulation in the Kiewit’s perimeter corridor and an aesthetic appropriate for the highly rational modernism of this mid-century temple to the computer.

The corridor and stairwell spaces were further enhanced by a permanent installation of performing arts posters by the Designer.