Highland Park Bridge interchange to include public art installation
The rebuilding of the interchange of Route 28 and the Highland Park Bridge gave Mark Young the chance he’d been waiting for: an opportunity to include public art as part of a road project.
Asan environmental planner for the state Department of Transportation, Mr. Young said he saw a need for design consistency in elements such as sound barriers along a highway. Too often, he said, there’s “a mishmash” that occurs when various walls or barriers within a short distance have several different tones of concrete.
To begin addressing that situation, Mr. Young persuaded the agency to include $30,000 as part of the interchange project to hire an artist to design artwork on 12 panels for sound barriers that will be installed during the project. It will mark the first time the agency has included sound barrier art in this part of the state, but Mr. Young hopes to make it a regular piece of the department’s construction projects.
Mr. Young said the interchange is a good area to begin coordinated artwork because the sound barrier reliefs will complement the Behind Every Wall drawings designed by artist Laurie Lundquist on the retaining wall along Route 28 near the 31st Street Bridge during a reconstruction project in 2013.
“This is something I had been thinking about for a number of years: that we should have some consistency with our sound barriers,” Mr. Young said. “We’re hoping for something that excites folks’ eyes as they come into the city.”
The goal is to have an artist design reliefs for seven sound barrier panels along the northbound lanes near the Highland Park Bridge and five panels along the southbound lanes near the Delafield Avenue
Bridge. The reliefs can have impressions 1 to 4 inches deep and can use up to three colors.
Similar projects around the world have produced a variety of impressive work, including colorful birds and panels that rotate to change the appearance of the images, said Sallyann Kluz, director of Pittsburgh’s Office of Public Art. The office is working with PennDOT to coordinate the project.
“It will be interesting to see what the potential artists think of,” Ms. Kluz said. “You never know how they can maximize what they can do with a limited palette.”
Ms. Kluz said about 20 artists participated in a meeting about the project recently, and she expects as many as 75 could submit qualifications for review. Artists have until March 29 to present their credentials for the project to the Office of Public Art.
The review committee, which will include PennDOT, the Office of Public Art, community members and visual arts professionals, will look for artists who have done similar projects, Ms. Kluz said. After evaluating credentials, the committee will meet with three artists and recommend one, plus a backup.
The chosen artist will develop a concept design proposal, then a final design, probably by the end of the year. The concept could include drawings or models of what the finished product might look like.
The final design will be given to the contractor creating the sound barriers, the beginning of what Ms.
Kluz called “when the magic happens.”
In her experience, Ms. Kluz said contractors often are skeptical of the process until they do it for the first time. Many times, that leads to them suggesting possibilities in future projects.
“When the artists start working with them, the contractors start to see what the possibilities are,” she said.
The key is developing something that is artistic, sturdy and easy to replace if it is damaged, Ms. Kluz said. The contractor will retain the design and forms used to create the reliefs.
“The highway is not a place you can put precious art,” she said.
Mr. Young said he’s not sure what to expect.
“To be honest, I don’t know what it is going to look like,” he said. “I know from what I have seen other places, it can be pretty neat.”
Ms. Kluz said she hopes the Route 28 project will lead to more use of public art in state road projects.
“It’s just so encouraging to see PennDOT taking such an interest in incorporating art,” she said.
Golden Triangle Construction is in the early stages of a 2½-year, $47.3 million project designed to eliminate the traffic bottleneck around the Highland Park Bridge’s interchange with Route 28. Crews will install an additional lane of free-flowing traffic in each direction on the highway, with separate exit lanes onto and off of the bridge.