Indian Bend Road Improvements Laura Haddad & Tom Drugan		Print This Page Email This Page

Update

•  SPA Board approved the new project on October 12, 2004

•  Recommended Artist Approval: February 14, 2006

•  Preliminary Concept Presentation: October 2006

•  Public Update Presentation: May 31, 2007

•  SPA Board Update: September 12, 2007

•  Currently in fabrication

•  Installation: August 2008 through June 2009

Description

The Indian Bend public art project provides an opportunity for the artist team to create site specific public art features that optimize the character of Indian Bend Wash. The Scottsdale Public Art Board selected the artist team of Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan on February 14, 2006. The team’s landscape architecture background, environmental responsiveness, versatility and eloquence with a touch of whimsy best suited the project requirements.

The artist team has worked to create a design that is integral to the structural work and also emerges as distinctive forms. The preliminary concepts focus on intertwining natural phenomena and cultural narrative through interrelated focal points in a drop structure on the north side of the bridge, and the wash basin elements on the south. The proposed public art on this project is inspired by and makes an attempt to harmonize with the history of the McCormick Ranch area and the storm water and natural wash conditions in the Indian Bend Wash.

Public art is located at the “drop structure” located to the north of the proposed bridge. A series of five horse gargoyles, reflecting the history of McCormick Ranch as an Arabian horse ranch, will be integrated into the drop structure on plinths extending toward the roadway. The horse gargoyles will each have a different pose creating a simulation of running as one passes. During low floods storm water will flow through the mouth of the gargoyles, and during high floods storm water will flow both through and around the gargoyles.

The horses will be constructed of plate Aluminum (Type 5052) with a bead blasted finish. The bead blasted finish catches the light and reduces reflectivity. They will be spaced about 125-feet apart and set on plinths built into the drop structure. The 3-foot wide plinths will be a “Dark Grey” colored concrete with a sand-blasted finish. The faces of each plinth will have a series of 1” deep chamfered horizontal score lines set apart at 2-foot intervals. These will align with the stadia marks on the bridge and stadia walls creating an element of consistency throughout the basin. The top of the plinths will form a trough to carry the water to the horse gargoyle. At night, the horse gargoyles will be elegantly up lit with blue lights on the east side and yellow lights on the west side.

Public art on the south side of the bridge consists of six ‘Stadia Walls’ located in the basin between the bridge columns and Flow Berms. Stadia Walls sculpturally mark the changing of the water heights and create a formal counterpoint between the bridge structure and naturalistic Flow Berms. Each Stadia Wall is three foot high by one foot wide and forms a transition from the archway piers of the bridge to the flow berms located further south. The walls each step in different ways at one foot vertical increments forming various patterns in the water as it rises during flow events. To mark these changing water elevations, inset bands of one-inch red tiles circumscribe each wall. The Stadia Walls are “Dark Grey” integral color concrete with a sandblast finish. The color matches the bridge aesthetics and horse gargoyle plinths creating a rich and harmonious palette throughout the basin. This palette of color and materials will be accented with the red stadia markings and punctuated with the horse gargoyles, vivid plant materials, and rich colors of the Flow Berm stone.

Project Manager

Jana Weldon 

janaw@sccarts.org

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