Rotary, Edwin to illuminate plaza on the riverfront
A giant light sculpture, projecting a moving light show visible from Riverside Drive and across the Detroit River, will be the centrepiece of the soon-to-open Rotary Club of Windsor (1918) Centennial Plaza. Enwin Utilities and the Rotary Club announced the $25,000 Enwin Kinetic Geode Monday for the under construction plaza that officially opens May 12 on the Windsor riverfront, just east of the Spirit of Windsor locomotive.
“It’s going to be pretty cool and the lighted piece is, we think, going to be a real draw and you’ll be able to see it from absolutely everywhere,” the club’s past-president, Janet Kelly, said following the announcement.
The sculpture will stand more than seven feet in height, with multiple laser-cut metal panels covering a moving internal light source. Enwin CEO Helga Reidel described it as a beacon of light and energy, which will symbolize what Enwin does. It distributes electricity and manages the city’s water system for the Windsor Utilities Commission.
The decision to support the sculpture with a $25,000 contribution over two years was made by an Enwin employee committee that decides on what community projects to support.
“We do electricity and we do water,” Reidel said. “Here we are on the riverfront that supplies our water and it’s a display of light. It kind of hits on both of the main services we provide.” Rotary’s Centennial Plaza is a legacy project celebrating the club’s 100 years. And Enwin sees the sculpture as a legacy project as well, said Reidel, noting that electricity was first provided in Windsor 130 years ago with the advent of electric streetcars. Rotary has been working several years on the plaza project, at a cost of $400,000 to $500,000, not including many donated features such as benches. The plaza will be like a special park within the riverfront park, featuring five big porch swings facing the river, a concrete table tennis table, walkways with signage on Rotary’s contributions, and umbrella-covered picnic tables. The centre of it will feature a trellis system, surrounding the sculpture by local artist Nicolas di Cosson. “I think (the public) is going to be absolutely astounded because it’s being designed as a destination,” Kelly said of the project. “You can walk along the waterfront and it’s lovely and there are a few things to stop and see.” But at the Centennial Plaza people can stop and walk the trails, sit and have a swing, have a lunch on a picnic table and admire the sculpture. “It’s going to be a real destination and I think it will be a place people from Windsor will want to come to, but visitors as well because it’s going to be so different,” said Kelly. It will be open 24/7, including at night when the sculpture will be at its best.
The sculpture will emit white light from the perforations in its metal patterns, providing an “everchanging light pattern, visible from Riverside Drive and across the Detroit River,” according to Enwin. People will be able to sit and enjoy a light show “as patterns of light move across the pavement.” This new sculpture is part of a surge in new public art in Windsor. New sculptures of Hiram Walker as well as War of 1812 heroes Issac Brock and Tecumseh are set to be erected this spring in Walkerville and Sandwich respectively. A 33foot monument to the late Dr. Lazar Jovanovic was recently erected in the roundabout at Erie Street and Parent Avenue. And last fall, an eye-catching sculpture depicting a globe held aloft by four hands of various skin colours, called Love for All, Hatred for None, was erected by the Admadiyya Muslim community along the riverfront near Aylmer Avenue.
Kelly said the plaza, located on land once used mostly for parking, will be a place where people will stop and relax. “People will say: ‘Meet me at the Rotary Centennial Plaza,’ and they’ll know exactly where to go,” she said. “It’s just going to be really nice.”