Last week, crews installed the cement slab upon which the Houghton Road Corridor Public Art projects sits. Joggers, bicyclists, and drivers stared in amazement as the came upon the multi-pipe sculpture, now known as the tunnel to nowhere.
The tunnel-like structure sits next to the paved pedestrian path alongside a newly widened portion of Houghton Road. The three mile stretch of Houghton Road Corridor Improvement Project is estimated to cost $22 million, according to project manager M.J. Dillard as reported in the Arizona Daily Star on August 29, 2013. It includes a six-lane road with rubberized asphalt, landscaped medians using native plants and water harvesting, bike lanes, sidewalks, bus pullouts and the public art project.
On Sunday, joggers and bicyclists shook their heads in apparent disgust and confusion by the elaborate and unattractive tail-pipe structure.
But participating artists say that the sculpture was inspired by nature and wildlife habitats, particularly butterfly and moth cocoons. The sculpture is supposed to be shaped like a cocoon.
However, it provides little comfort or protection. While the sculpture is designed to be a destination/meeting place on the walking path along Houghton Road, the weave of metal pipes provide no real shelter from the sun or other elements. The sculpture was created off-site and was transported to Houghton Road for installation.
The sculpture is composed of stainless steel and will contain low-level LED lighting that will be illuminated at night to allow for “unique shadows” to be cast as people walk through it. It has had standard engineering, construction and risk management reviews.
It is unclear whether the risk management team assessed the risk to small children who might see it as a perfect climbing structure with no soft landing surface below it.
According to planning documents, “Public art planning artists Nina Borgia-Aberle, Stephen Grede, and Blessing Hancock have been working with the design team and the community on the Public Art Master Planning Process since November of 2009. It has been their goal to understand the roadway from a cultural, historical, environmental, and aesthetic perspective. They collaborated with the community through attending Community Design Review Committee (CDRC) meetings, Houghton Road project open house events, neighborhood association meetings and community events. Their process identified opportunities and developed guidelines for future project artists. Through a competitive selection process, project artists are chosen to create specific art in conjunction with the design and construction phases of the segments.”
According to planners:
• Several locations were considered for the sculpture. Constraints for the locations that were eliminated included the presence of overhead power lines and underground gas lines.
• The sculpture is being located just south of Drexel Road on the east side of Houghton Road. This location allows for a nearby source of electricity to light the art piece.
• The artist rendering of the sculpture and additional information about the art selection process and recommendations may be found by visiting the project website at www.houghtonroad.info and selecting the Art link.The following information is from the Houghton Road for the Irvington Road to Valencia Road improvement project Public Art fact sheet.
Process
All Regional Transportation Authority (RTA} projects allocate 1% of construction costs for public art. Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC) administers the Percent for Art program for both the City of Tucson and Pima County Through a competitive selection process organized and facilitated by TPAC, project artists are chosen to plan and create specific art in conjunction with the design and construction phases of the specific projects. The project artists are selected by a panel that includes residents and artists from the project area neighborhoods.
Design
Artists Blessing Hancock, Joe O’Connell and Nina Borgia-Aberle were selected for the design of the art for the Houghton Road: Irvington Road to Valencia Road segment:
• The artists used community input from the Houghton Road Corridor Master Art Plan to influence their art concept.
• The artist concepts, evaluated by the artist selection committee, were presented at three Ward 4 CDRC meetings, a public art meeting and one project public meeting over a two-year period.Borgia-Aberle, Grede, and Hancock developed a planning process document designed to help the community understand how they approach Public Art in Transportation; it is titled “An Introduction to Public Art in Transportation, A Non-Urban Focus”. The “Art Types Board”, which is a collection of local and national public art images that is meant to stir imagination, can also be reviewed.
The public art planning artists have attended Ward 2 and Ward 4 CDRC meetings as well as all project Open House events. The meeting notes about past art discussions can be found in the archived news and meeting notes section on the houghtonroad.info website for specific art discussions at those meetings. A tremendous amount of information was gathered from the community along with the artists’ own research.