A plaza on the outskirts of Phoenix gives riders a comfortable place to wait for buses. Working with the project's design team, I developed a large outdoor plaza for people waiting for buses into Phoenix. The design includes large-scale shade screens, decorative railings, and seating. The main shade screen provides shade and seating for passengers, and creates a grand entry into the site. The cut-steel screens and railings feature stylized images of routes down out of the surrounding foothills, into the traffic interchanges that can be seen from the site. The artwork’s title comes the song by Supertramp.

The cut-metal designs in these panels look a bit like woodcuts, but the design was mostly driven by safety and physical constraints of working in metal in a public space: Edges have to be smooth so they don’t point or catch, connections have to be wide enough so they won’t bend or break, holes have to be small enough to be safe for small children, the design should discourage climbing, and detailed enough to discourage graffiti. Figuring out a design vocabulary within these parameters—how to draw cars and faces and skies with smooth and connecting lines—leads to the look of the panels. Each time I design another piece, I learn more about what is possible in this medium.

The project was so successful that I was asked to design similar shade structures for two more Park and Rides in the city. Each has the same architecture, but features unique cut-steel designs that reflect the character and history of the neighborhood.

For the second project, I used imagery of cowboys leaning against a split-rail fence (now waiting for a bus, perhaps?) shelter recalls the recent agricultural history of the area. The screen features five cowboys, and the three approaching free-standing screens include larger-than-life images of a cowboy’s horse, a cactus wren, and a jackrabbit. The artwork’s title comes from the song by Big Country.

The third featured imagery reflecting the area’s Japanese-American flower farms in the mid-20th Century.

Dates: 2011, 2012, 2014
Locations: Happy Valley Park and Ride,
27th Avenue Park and Ride,
and 24th Street Park and Ride, Phoenix, AZ
Commissioning Agency:
Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture
Project Manger: Rebecca Rothman
Fabrication: Magnum Companies
Landscape Architect: Janet Waibel
Details: Powder-coated steel shade and seating structure: 13 ft x 64 ft x 5 ft