Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A NEW KIND OF STREET ART
Designs on an unorthodox canvas could be popping up in downtown Hollywood by the end of 2019
HOLLYWOOD –
Trippy street art may be coming to Hollywood by the end of the year.
But this time, you’ll be able to walk on the canvas and drive too.
The same city already known for its quirky downtown murals wants to jazz up intersections and crosswalks in and around downtown, dolling up plain old pavement with playful designs to give Hollywood streets an artsy vibe.
The project would also aim to give distracted drivers a reason to slow down and take
in the beauty, says Jill Weisberg, coordinator for the city’s wildly popular Downtown Hollywood Mural Project.
Slow down, take a look
“These are going to be especially fun to walk over and take your stroller over,” Weisberg says. “If you’re walking, you’re going to slow down and take a look. And if you’re driving too.
If you see a painted intersection, you’re going to stop and look at it. It’s cool. It’s going to make the neighborhood look even cuter.”
Cities around the country — including Portland, New Orleans, Minneapolis, Tampa and Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood — have given busy intersections vibrant paint jobs to help slow traffic and add dramatic flair to neighborhoods.
“Downtown Hollywood is now like this arts hub, so why not have painted intersections?” Weisberg says. “This is no longer a crazy ‘out there’ idea. So many municipalities have done it. We want to have as much of an artistic flair as we can.”
In 2014, Fort Lauderdale painted a few key street corners after a pedestrian trying to cross Las Olas Boulevard was hit and killed by a car, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis says.
Hoping to catch drivers’ attention, volunteers painted bright ribbons of blue, pink, yellow and orange in the middle of three intersections at Southeast First, Second and Third avenues. It seems to have worked, the mayor says.
“I do know that no one has been hurt at one of those intersections since they’ve been painted,” Trantalis says.
Trantalis says he plans to suggest the project be expanded to other key intersections throughout Fort Lauderdale.
In Hollywood, four artists were chosen out of 200 entries and paid $1,000 each for their designs: Laureen Biruk, of Hallandale Beach; Karla Campos, of Pembroke Pines; and Antonella Anziani Ballarin and Alejandro Villanueva, both of Hollywood.
Campos created a playful design, with a big yellow sun and black and white smiley face brightening up the intersection. Each crosswalk has its own symbol: a heart, a peace sign, a music note and a dancing pedestrian figure.
“This is a super cute one,” Weisberg says. “It’s adorable. Hearts, love, peace.”
Biruk’s ocean-themed design puts a giant sea turtle smack in the middle of the intersection. White, red and turquoise fish swim upstream and downstream in the 6-foot-wide crosswalk.
“It brings that awareness of ocean conservation to the downtown area,” Biruk says. “And Hollywood is famous for its beach. So now when people go downtown to go to dinner it still has that same beach vibe.”
Ballarin’s design is reminiscent of a swirling kaleidoscope with black, blue, purple and clay tones. Waves of color extend into a crosswalk decorated with yellow Cheerio-like rings, five for each pedestrian walkway.
Villanueva’s vision resembles a magic carpet, with an intricate design in the crosswalk and geometric cubes in the center.
He used eight colors in all: safety blue, gun metal, pumpkin spice, mustard, seafoam, smoky mauve, black and white.
“A lot of cars are going to be going through this intersection, so I started with a black base so it would hold up better,” he says. “It took me a week and a half. I wanted to get it just right. I’m hoping it will make the cars slow down a little bit. With the mix of colors and the shapes, it’s at least going to make them more aware.”