The cobras are gone, but now there’s an owl – and Chris Levack is working to make sure it’s a good time for everyone who visits.
Which is to say: The longtime Eastside bastion of education, Metz Elementary School – Go, Cobras! – shuttered in 2020, and the students were integrated into nearby Sanchez Elementary. Now the decommissioned building, currently housing a variety of AISD departments (Health Services, Library & Media Services, STEM, and more), is having its surroundings transmogrified into an Outdoor Wonder & Learning (OWL) Center, and interactive sculptor Chris Levack, of legendary Black Mountain Austin and the Guild of Austin Artisans, is the man responsible for the site’s new nature-celebrating, enjoyably explorable architecture.
You know Levack’s work: The native Austinite is the creator of House Park’s Iron Wave steel skate ramp and the towering Pollen Grain sphere at Mueller. He built the acclaimed, family-friendly playscapes for Meanwhile Brewing, Jester King, Austin Beerworks, Fast Friends Beer Co., and other popular watering holes. He’s long wrestled wood and metal and more to enhance the world for people everywhere. Public art? Levack and public art are BFFs.
“The breweries asked me to come into their space and create unique interactive sculpture,” says the artist. “And they focus on use by kids, but I always say, ‘For kids from 1 to 100,’ because it’s recreational for everyone. And those installations led to me doing work for schools as well.”
A grin splits the bottom of Levack’s tanned face as he recalls the work he’s done, the joy unsurprising in a creative fiftysomething who still shreds at the skate park every week. “I’ve done playscapes at St. Marks, at St. Francis – that St. Francis one was really cool. It included an observatory looking out over their soccer field!
“It was during those school projects that I got this latest one for Metz,” he says. “After the school closed, AISD didn’t want to sell the land or change it – you know, they didn’t want to turn it into condos.” Thanks to a grant secured by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the artist explains, the school district is in the midst of developing an outdoor education program complete with multiple playscapes.
“I’m doing only one of them – there’ll be four or five different spots,” Levack says. “And the idea is they’re starting off with Metz as, like, the lab for other projects, to see what AISD can do with outdoor education.”
Question: What can AISD do with outdoor education?
“The OWL Center will provide a free field trip destination for nature discovery and STEM-based outdoor learning for students district-wide, as well as professional learning opportunities for staff,” notes OWL project manager Renee Bourgeois. “The goal is to cultivate an inclusive garden of ‘Yes!’ for student inquiry and hands-on, experiential STEM learning that will serve all AISD students. As in, ‘Yes, you may – climb, build, run, play, touch, smell, pour, mix, swing, jump, balance, etc.,’ while learning and exploring.”
This local triumph of public education and community engagement might be something you want to learn and explore for yourself, citizen – especially, we reckon, if you live anywhere nearby. Which is why we’re glad to note that the Metz OWL Center (84 Robert T. Martinez Jr.) will have an official opening ceremony on Friday, Sept., 26, at 10am.
But we’re also using this latest unveiling as an excuse to flaunt a small selection of Levack’s other sculptural creations, to give you an idea of what he continues to bring into the world. Hell, maybe you’ll want to do a Chris Levack Art Tour daytrip sort of thing, driving around and checking out the various builds when you’re 1) not busy busting your aging, proletarian hump for The Man and 2) weary, so weary, of relentless doomscrolling and Netflix-bingeing.
And, of course, who doesn’t like hearing of an artist’s origins and what they’ve got coming up, right? So we asked the man: Chris, why do you do what you do? What led to all this … splendid infrastructure?“Growing up here in Austin and loving the outdoors – skateboarding, playing soccer at Zilker, swimming at Barton Springs – I had no idea what a charmed place this was, but I loved it. And when I went to Chicago for art school, I was blown away by something so different: All the industry, the architecture, the construction, watching steel being poured in the forges. And, when I came back home after college, I was inspired to create works of art that would endure, that would also complement the environment, the flora and fauna.”
We think the flora and fauna’s been well-complemented – and in a thoroughly Austin way. Thank you, maestro. And, ah, what’s next on the Levack agenda?
“There’s another project going on right now – I’ve gotten the majority of it done, and we’ve even had an opening,” he shares.
“I think it’s equally as notable as the Metz, maybe more so. It’s at the historical site in La Grange, where the first lager brewery was built, Kreische Brewery, and all the Texians from the War of Independence are buried in a giant monument there. I designed and built a large-scale outdoor history classroom, with all sorts of custom features referring to Texas history and the way of life back in the 1800s. Turns out the directors of the park had been to Meanwhile, and they were watching all the kids run around, and they were like, ‘We need something like this at our park …’”