Art in Public Places juggles between 15 and 20 projects at one time. The following are among those nearing completion.

Town Lake Park Children’s Garden

Beverly Penn, lead artist, with Steve Wiman, Kate Catterall, Grady Hillman, James Polk, Leticia Rodriguez
This children’s park slotted for the city’s new cultural epicenter is a veritable discoveryscape of arts and imagination: a splash fountain, a bubble fountain, lily pools with squirting water based on the Fibonacci series, an amphitheatre, a mini lighthouse casting rainbows. The project, originally budgeted at $28,000, received an unexpected boon when the Junior League of Austin offered to donate $480,000, which City Council will consider this month.

Untitled

R. Murray Lege, lead designer

East Police Substation & Forensics Lab
“This is a public art piece that blurs the line between public art and landscape architecture,” says Martha Peters. “It’s like an earthwork.” From close up it appears as a simple meditation garden and labyrinth in front of the forensics lab, a few trees, a nice lawn. Step back, and it’s in the shape of a fingerprint.

Lamar Underpass

Carl Trominski
The first AIPP project to tackle streetscapes, this makeover of the often clogged Lamar & Third underpass was the brainchild of Council Member Will Wynn. But it was Trominski, an architect, who created the design, a series of blue reflecting panels, mounted along the wall like roadway signs, a visual riff on guitar frets or oars in the water. “It’s really a piece for cars,” says Peters. “When the car lights hit the signs, they’ll shine.”

This article appears in December 20 • 2002.

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