May 2009 Urban Land ULX Web extra. Ten examples of contemporary art in built environments.

1. ulx
Art of Bounds
ron nyren
Beyond the walls of muse- to play in the urban landscape. For or pick a work at random to fulfill a
Ten examples of contemporary ums, public art plays a number private sector developments, it can percent-for-the-arts requirement,
art integrated into the built of roles. For cities, it can bolster draw shoppers, orient visitors, and the municipal agencies, nonprofit
downtown redevelopment efforts, create a strong sense of place. organizations, and private sector
environment. create civic landmarks, and make The best uses of public art developers and owners shown
the history of a place palpable. In tend to engage in dialogue with below spent time choosing artists
terms of infrastructure, art can indi- or reflect some aspect of their and artworks and, in some cases,
vidualize transit stations, encour- surroundings—physical, historic, facilitated community input.
age people to use transit as well as demographic, or cultural. Rather
walking and cycling paths, and give than haul in a famous artist Ron nyRen is a freelance architecture and urban
parking structures an aesthetic role simply for the sake of the name, design writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

2. 1. Aventura Mall
aventUra, FLoriDa
A witty juxtaposition with the nearby south Florida
palm trees, Back of a Snowman, a faceless, enamel-
on-bronze snowman sculpture by Gary Hume, greets
visitors to Aventura Mall. Inside, two gigantic eyeballs
made of black Zimbabwe granite and created by
sculptor Louise Bourgeois watch shoppers from a
position on Aventura Mall’s concourse floor, not far
from the escalators. On second-story ceiling beams,
Steven Brooke StudioS/the artiSt and Marian GoodMan Gallery
conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner has painted
Acquired Required Desired Admired | All within the
Realm of | Possibility—the words of the title appear in
both English and Spanish, acknowledging the area’s
high proportion of Hispanic people. Aventura-based
Turnberry Associates, the mall’s owner, created
the Turnberry for the Arts program in concert with
renovations, seeking to draw residents and tourists
with museum-caliber art. The program incorporates
contemporary art in various media and also commis-
sions site-specific work. The first work was unveiled
in 2006, a children’s playground created by Miami art
collective Friends with You.

3. 2. BP Energy Center
anchorage, aLaska
On a plasma video screen inside the BP Energy Center, Alaskans tell oral
histories; the text of their speech flows along a 150-foot-long (46-m-long)
LED display through a corridor, penetrating a plate glass window and
snaking through the trees of the adjacent birch forest. The Story Pipeline,
created by artist Ben Rubin of EAR Studio working with Batwin+Robin Pro-
ductions, both of New York, consciously evokes the Alaska Pipeline, one
of whose major owners—Houston, Texas–based BP America—built the BP
Energy Center. Designed by Anchorage architecture firm Koonce Pfeffer
Bettis, Inc., and completed in 2002, the facility has two goals: to provide a
training, meeting, and conference center for the state’s nonprofits and edu-
cation organizations—at no charge—and to house interactive displays and
changing exhibitions to educate visiting schoolchildren and other members
of the public about the state’s energy industry.
kevin SMith

4. bristoL, engLanD, U.k.
The shell-shaped glass roof that arcs over the central
©Paul Grundy/Murray Scott/inSite artS-art conSultantS
square and shopping streets of Cabot Circus is among
multiple, site-specific art commissioned for the retail and
leisure development, which also includes residences, a
hotel, and office space. As part of the art program created
by London arts consultant InSite Arts, the project’s master
planner and lead designer, Chapman Taylor Architects,
collaborated with artist Nayan Kulkarni (both based in
London) to create the roof. The glazed planes are attached
to six different buildings, protecting the spaces beneath
from the weather without sealing them under a traditional
roof. Other works include 25-foot-long (7.5-m-long) neon
figures created by London-based artists Vong Phaophanit
and Claire Oboussier, which dangle in the parking struc-
ture’s central void, and Surrey, England–based Ackroyd
& Harvey’s 66-foot-high (20-m-high) tower clad in slate
and topped by solar panels and a wind turbine to power
its illumination. Developed by the Bristol Alliance, Cabot
Circus opened in 2008.

5. 4. Downtown East/Metrodome LRT Station and Plaza
MinneapoLis, Minnesota
To design each station along Minneapolis’s Hiawatha light-rail
transit line, which opened in 2004, Minnesota’s Metropolitan
Council, the region’s governmental agency, brought together dif-
ferent teams of architecture firms and artists. For each station,
public workshops were held to ask area residents what they
would like the design to express about their neighborhoods.
For the Downtown East/Metrodome station, local architec-
ture firm Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc., paired up with
local artist Andrew Leicester. The project includes a below-grade
parking garage, a one-acre (0.4-ha) public plaza, and the tran-
sit station, with the platform bisecting the block diagonally.
Marking the station as a gateway to downtown, a curving arcade
stretches across the center of the site, clad with colorful brick
mosaics that honor the immigrants who crossed the Mississippi
River over the nearby Stone Arch Bridge in the 19th century to
settle nearby. The arcade’s arches also recall that bridge as
GeorGe heinrich
well as the Roman Coliseum, precursor to modern stadiums
like the Metrodome.
m ay 2 0 0 9 U r b a n La n D 33

6. varioUs Locations throUghoUt the U.k.
The National Cycle Network consists of 12,000 miles (19,300
km) of pedestrian/bicycle paths connecting the United King-
dom’s main cities, towns, and villages. Sustrans, the Bristol,
England–based charity that has been coordinating and grow-
ing the network since the late 1970s, developed the Art and
the Travelling Landscape program to commission site-specific
contemporary artworks in an effort to entice more people
to use the paths. Artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and
Doug Cocker take cues from the surroundings and engage
with local communities with the aim of creating meaningful
landmarks. For Hi-Views, the 25-mile (40-km) route between
Lincoln and Boston, the artworks include Boston Pendulum
by Paul Robbrecht of the Ghent, Belgium–based architecture
firm Robbrecht en Daem. Installed in 2007, it is a work of art
david Martin/SuStranS
in itself—its colors derived from the plumage of local birds,
its form a contemporary interpretation of the gothic vaulting
of Lincoln Cathedral visible in the distance—as well as a
viewing platform for surveying the landscape.

7. 6. Huizenga Plaza
Fort LaUDerDaLe, FLoriDa
The Broward County Public Art and Design
Program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, com-
missioned Seattle-based artist Dan Corson
to create a permanent light-based artwork
in celebration of the program’s 30th anni-
versary. After several sites were considered,
an existing downtown park, Huizenga Plaza,
was chosen. The city’s downtown develop-
ment authority became involved, providing
additional funds: the project provided the
opportunity to address the authority’s desire
for enhanced nighttime lighting in the area as
a way of alleviating safety concerns. Corson
devised two works: Luminous Conjunctions
provides a steady white light and incorporates
motion sensors that light the park’s trees col-
orfully with energy-efficient LEDs when people
pass by. Emerald Laser Lawn relies on motion
sensors to project a variety of moving laser
light patterns across the park’s grass. The
©dan corSon
works were installed in 2007.

8. 7. International Trade Center Parking Structure
charLotte, north caroLina
In the mid-1990s, when Bank of America acquired the former Charlotte Apparel
Mart (now the International Trade Center) in the city’s uptown neighborhood,
the associated parking structure was unfinished, lacking brick cladding on one
side. With construction starting on a heritage trolley line along the street, and
the Charlotte Bobcats Arena slated to open opposite the structure in 2005,
Bank of America turned to Sebastopol, California–based artist Ned Kahn for
a way to transform the exposed facade. Kahn had previously created artwork
for the facade of another of the bank’s parking structures in Charlotte. For
Wind Silos, completed in 2006, Kahn covered the 80-foot-high (24-m-high) by
450-foot-long (137-m-long) facade with a series of corrugated and perforated
stainless steel screens, curved to recall the forms of the Archer Daniels Mid-
land Company grain silos not far from downtown. The screens incorporate a
16-foot-high (4.9-m-high) band along the length of the facade, containing thou-
sands of small stainless steel disks. These disks reflect light and move in the
breeze, creating a striking visual buffer without blocking ventilation.

9. ©colin Jewall
8. Sapperton SkyTrain Station, Millennium Rail Line
new westMinster, british coLUMbia, canaDa
One of the first stations built on the 12.4-mile (20-km) Millennium
Line extension of the Vancouver metropolitan area’s elevated
SkyTrain system, Sapperton Station contains within itself a com-
mentary on the human desire for motion. Fluid Motion, by Van-
couver artist Alan Storey, consists of two metal discs, each 18
feet (5.5 m) in diameter, fixed vertically between two platforms.
Storey connected a stationary bicycle—located on the pedestrian
overpass above—to the work so that transit riders could get the
discs spinning by pedaling. In the fashion of a zoetrope, panels
with images blur into an animation of the moon going through its
phases on one disc, while the other disc shows the ubiquitous
stick figure of urban signage performing backflips. The work’s title
alludes not only to the movement of the trains but also to the flow
of liquid in the nearby brewery, one of the major employers in the
©colin Jewall
immediate vicinity. Designed by IBI/HB Architects of Vancouver,
the station opened in 2002.

10. 9. Warren City Square
warren, Michigan
Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit and
the third-largest city in the state, evolved to
accommodate the automobile and lacked a
city center. The city hired Madison, Wisconsin–
based JJR to redress this problem by planning
a pedestrian-friendly, 12-block downtown and
creating a new city square. In front of the new
city hall and library designed by Neumann/
Smith Architecture of Southfield, Michigan, the
square includes a plaza, a pavilion, a stage, a
formal lawn, an interactive water feature that
doubles as an ice rink in the winter, and Dawn,
two tall steel sculptures by David Barr of Novi,
JuStin Maconochie/Maconochie PhotoGraPhy
Michigan. The sculptures not only serve as a
centerpiece for the square, but also inspired
the city’s new logo, meant to symbolize the
city’s aspirations for the future. The square
opened in 2006 as part of the city’s 50th
anniversary celebration.

11. 10. Webb Bridge
MeLboUrne, victoria, aUstraLia
Patterned after the eel traps that local
Aborigines wove out of vegetation hundreds
of years ago, the Webb Bridge represents a
collaboration between artist Robert Owen
and Denton Corker Marshall Architects, both
based in Melbourne, Australia. Completed
in 2002, the sinuous steel-lattice bridge
builds on and extends leftover sections of a
former rail bridge on the Yarra River, provid-
ing passage for pedestrians and bicyclists
and connecting the Docklands on the north
bank to new residential developments on
the south. The developer of those resi-
Shannon McGrath
dences, Mirvac Corporation of Sydney, New
South Wales, funded the Webb Bridge with
1 percent of the project’s budget as part of
the Victoria government’s art policy for the
Docklands redevelopment. The 361-foot-
long (110-m-long) bridge includes a ramp
for wheelchair access. UL