At the JW Clay station, Jackie Chang was influenced by the station and boulevard's namesake, James W. Clay, a geographer, traveler, and urban planner. The artist often blends text and images in her art, and for the station she incorporates the words "HERE" and "THERE". For the artist, "HERE" signifies one's current location and "THERE" indicates the horizon. Chang creates this distinction by inlaying the word HERE into the platform pavement and printing a combination of THERE - which incorporates HERE - into the glass windscreen above the horizon lines of each one of three recognizable North Carolina landscapes depicted in the glass. Chang digitally created representations of the verdant fields of the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the coastal waters of North Carolina.
Beneath each of the three passenger shelters on the platform is the word HERE inlaid into a red color concrete, 29' by 14' topographical map. HERE is in proximity to a stainless steel compass rose and map lines inspired by a 1907 contour map of Charlotte in homage to J.W. Clay.