It's officially been game on for the Van Ness Avenue Bus Rapid Transit project since 2013, when the plan to construct a separated-from-traffic set of lanes for Golden Gate Transit and Muni's 49 and 47 line buses from Lombard to Mission Streets got its final OK. But the BRT plan involves more than just buses! There's also a public art component for which the San Francisco Arts Commission is presently seeking public comment.
The SFAC's part of the BRT plan (all the details of which you can read on both the SFCTA and SFMTA sites) involves the commission of "a series of significant, museum caliber sculptures of the highest aesthetic quality for permanent [there seems to be a missing word here — installation, maybe?] along the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit route."
After a national call for artists, Los Angeles-based sculptor Jorge Pardo was chosen to create "three large scale lighting sculptures" that will be at the ends of the BRT platforms at the Market, Sutter-Bush and Union Street Stations.
The 20-foot-tall artworks "will be fabricated from steel that will be illuminated from within," the Arts Commission says. You can see the renderings of the sculptures above, as they are expected to look in daylight (l) and after dark (r).
According to Pardo's artist's statement, “the work is an urban coastal redwood it is made of steel, light and weather ..it is young not old .it comes out of the concrete not the soil .it does not grow ..its purpose is to orient and remind .maybe of the past .maybe the present ..it is an urban machine " Oh, my goodness. Art!
Pardo's proposal is on view at SF's Main Library until September 28, and members of the community are encouraged to share their opinions on the proposed sculptures with the Commission before October 20 by email at [email protected], or by postal mail or hand delivery to 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 345.
Interested members of the public may also attend the Visual Arts Committee meeting planned for 3 p.m. on October 21 at 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 125 and voice their opinions on the "young not old" works during the public comment period.
[h/t Hoodline]
