Art installation adds downtown shade
GARRETT MITCHELL
The city of Phoenix is throwing shade. Functional, architectural shade.
On Saturday, the city introduced Bloomcanopy, a unique and eye-catching art installation along Pierce Street in the middle of downtown.
The large-scale steel sculpture, part of the city’s Tree and Shade Master Plan, offers hardwood seating and plenty of shade along the newly shrunken tree-lined lane between Central Avenue and First Street.
But it’s not just a place to find refuge in the blistering heat. It’s also a spot for a passer-by to pause while en route to nearby happenings.
Pops of brightly colored glazed ceramic nodules were inserted into steel umbrella-like outcroppings to stimulate the eye.
“Our desire was for a sustained vibrancy in a landscape bleached varying shades of beige, not unlike a delicate yet tenacious bloom that finds a fissure in the sidewalk out of which to grow,” described Matter Architecture on its website.
Bloomcanopy stands adjacent to the Phoenix Public Market’s open-air space and cafe between Central Avenue and First Street. The block was bustling with visitors Saturday morning as food trucks opened their windows and vendors sold local produce.
Phoenix Public Market owner Kurt Schneider, a vice chairman of the Phoenix Community Alliance, said it was gratifying and exciting to be part of the process in making downtown increasingly attractive to visitors and residents.
“I think it’s integral to the success of the neighborhood. Having the walkability makes it stand out from the rest of Phoenix where they don’t have that,” he said. “Everyone wants that connection.”
It’s taken years to debut a reverse-process of retaining shade through Bloomcanopy, said Ed Lebow, the city’s public-art program director.
“There’s no question parts of this city are getting hotter over time, and we want to combine trees and structures in places people want to be,” Lebow said. “This is a great example of a complete street.”
The collective cost for the design and construction of the installation totaled more than $750,000, Lebow said.
The project was designed by the New Yorkbased Matter Architecture Practice and landscape architects Gavan & Barker Inc. The firms were commissioned by the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture Public Art Program and received financial support from a National Endowment for the Arts Mayor’s Institute of Design 25th Anniversary grant.
The restructured Pierce streetscape is the latest addition to a yearslong effort by city leaders to reshape Phoenix’s urban core. One of the first finished “complete street” plans was the pedestrian-friendly retrofit of Roosevelt that cost $2.5 million.
A similar metal-art installation, “Shadow Play” by Meejin Yoon, made its debut in the triangle between Third and Fourth streets in 2015.
This year, the city will also plans to transform the Grand Canal in central Phoenix with public art and shade structures, and a new pathway and landscaping.