Parkade art nears completion

Pedestrians on Ellis Street in downtown Kelowna will soon have a bird’s-eye view of the entire Okanagan landscape.

A representation of the Valley, fashioned from 200 precision-cut strips of aluminum, is now being assembled by two Vancouver artists.

The finished work will hang on seven large panels bolted to the outside of the recently-expanded library parkade, becoming the newest piece in the City of Kelowna’s public art collection.

“The design is taken, quite literally, from a GIS map of the Okanagan,” artist Ron Hart said Monday from Vancouver.

“If someone is fairly astute geographically, they should be able to recognize different parts of the Okanagan, from Osoyoos right up to Kelowna,” said Hart, who created the piece with fellow artist Mike Fugeta.

The strips are now being cut into various shapes to mimic the Okanagan geography, with higher points representing mountain ranges and depressions to indicate Okanagan Lake.

Still to be decided is the overall colour scheme of the artwork.

“We’re still playing around with some ideas,” Hart said. “We’re thinking about using bright colours, to make it really stand out from the exterior of the parkade.”

The finished piece will be installed within a few months.

Hart and Fugeta were awarded the $150,000 contract after the declining value of the Canadian dollar meant the Seattle artist who was originally chosen for the project wasn’t able to complete her piece within the specified budget.