Griffith Wood

Griffith Wood has two populations reading signs in the same building at the same time, and they want opposite things. Upstairs a resident or a visitor wants one apartment number. Downstairs a driver wants the exit, and wants it without stopping. Those are different disciplines, and a scheme goes wrong when one of them is treated as a variation of the other.

The lift lobby directory at Charlemont Gate lists every level with the apartments it holds, 01 to 07 at ground, 08 to 14 on the first, up to 29 to 35 on the fourth. The level you are standing on is set in bold while the rest stay light, so the panel answers where am I before it answers which way. It is a small distinction and it is the whole reason the sign works for somebody carrying bags.

Two populations, reading in the same building, wanting opposite things.

02Downstairs: read at five miles an hour

The basement runs on an entirely different language. Suspended blades carry Exit with a chevron, read from the driving position rather than from standing height. No Entry is a red roundel, not a sentence. The speed limit is repeated on the columns rather than posted once at the entrance, because a driver who has made two turns underground has lost sight of the first sign. Nothing down there is bilingual branding. It is traffic signage, and it is held to traffic conventions on purpose.