Client: City of Boulder
Location: Boulder, CO, United States
Completion date: 2011
Artwork budget: $120,000
Project Team
Artist
Christian Mueller
Other
David Butler
Other
Clancy Philipsborn
Other
Fourteen Engineers Public Activists and Flood Plain Managers
Collaborators
Artist
Dorothy Lenehan
Artist
Mary White
Overview
Downtown Boulder, Colorado is in a flood plain. There is continuing pressure
to build in the high risk flood zone. The flood marker was designed and created to
remind citizens and visitors that the waters have been known to reach over sixteen feet higher than normal. Please read the full story: https://directory.weadartists.org/colorado-marking-floods
Goals
The goals of the flood marker project were to 1) increase flood education and awareness to the downtown flood plain of Boulder, Colorado and 2) honor the legacy of Gilbert F. White, a Boulder geographer who educated the City of Boulder for many years about effective flood plain management.
Process
It took a “village”, a collaboration of artists, flood managers, engineers, environmentalists, flood consultants, community facilitators, city officials, hydrologists, electricians, landscapers, and heavy construction workers, to build the flood marker. I made the original design in 2006, which is when Elizabeth Black and Christian Muller joined the art team. The project is a 18' foot high flood marker in downtown Boulder, Co, near Boulder Creek, in honor of my father Gilbert.