Client: City of Boise

Overview

Gateway sculpture greeting visitors to the state of Idaho
Completed June, 2021
Medium: Stainless Steel, Powdercoated Stainless Steel, LED Lights, Acrylic
Dimensions: 13’h x 5’w x 5’d each
Location: Vista Avenue Median, Boise, ID
Budget: $230,000

Description: TRANSITIONS is a series of four wind sculptures that was requested as a gateway piece for the state of Idaho. They are installed on the median strip on Vista avenue that connects Boise Airport to downtown. Boise is known as The City of Trees. In that spirit, we have created a series of four 13′ tall tree-like sculptures. Each represents one of the four seasons conveying the regions distinct and beautiful changing landscape. The top part of each sculpture, with colorful bold shapes, moves with the wind to welcome visitors to the city and beckon them on their way.

Each of the four sculptures are internally wired to light up at night. The bases display multiple colors with unique shapes and patterns and the upper sections reflect light from below. The city of Boise is now in contract to bring power to the sculpture site.

Goals

The surrounding neighborhood community was very active in approving this project. There had been a previous call for proposals for this site which the neighborhood actively rejected. With this in mind, for the second call for proposals, the city posted our project design, along with 2 other finalists, on their city website for a month long public viewing and asked residents to express their opinions. Our project met with unanimous approval and has been very well received by residents and visitors alike.

Process

After initial design was approved by the city, we spent time working with the structural engineer and the project manager to finalize the location of the sculpture, lighting and footing design. We worked closely and had numerous meetings with the project manager, the city staff and contractors about the power requirements, footing design and the schedule throughout the project. We successfully managed the pouring of the footing and the art installation on site.