Public Art
Public Art on the Cheap: Providence's Custom Metal Trashcans
In Providence, Rhode Island, local craftsmen are turning trashcans into art. The metal bins are custom-worked with designs celebrating local businesses and more general themes.
Downtown Defrost: Pittsburgh Engages Artists to Warm Up Public Spaces
Keeping public spaces active and attractive during the winter months is a common challenges in cold weather climates. Pittsburgh is seeking ideas from artists to help enliven downtown's Market Square during the depths of winter.
Crowdsourced Project Turns British Streets Into Massive Art Gallery
At 22,000 sites across the United Kingdom, space normally reserved for billboards and poster advertisements will become frames for great works of art. For the Art Everywhere project, the public played curator and donated online to help pay the costs.
Great Placemaking Begins with Acknowledging the Obvious
Our brains simply tune out anything that might suggest that our behavior is in some way complicit in our problems. Scott Doyon zeros in on the obvious, but often overlooked, problems with our auto-oriented culture.
Transforming a Train Station on the Cheap
For only $155,000 a light sculpture has helped transform Stamford, Conn.'s unloved train station - “a building that has a harshness almost unequaled in contemporary architecture” - into a pulsating beacon "reminiscent of a Mondrian" painting.
S.F.'s Second Bridge Gets a Rare Turn in the Spotlight
One of the few times the Golden Gate Bridge's older sibling made headlines was for frightening reasons during the Loma Prieta earthquake. This week, the utilitarian Bay Bridge received a dose of elegance, as the world’s largest LED light sculpture.
Art Competition Brings Urban Vitality and Civic Pride
Mark Stryker writes on Grand Rapids' ArtPrize, a citywide art competition that awards prize money based on public vote, and has been a boon to artists and the local economy. It is now inspiring other cities to host their own such events.
A Fractal View of Urban Design
Benjamin Wellington reviews a new book by Mark C. Childs, which paints a picture of the city as the product of a complex and highly detailed design hierarchy, from regional topography all the way down to the arrangement of indoor spaces.
Public Art Rejuvenates a City
Less than 25 years ago, Nantes was an old port town languishing in the wake of failing industry. But thanks to a commitment to public art, it has since become a cultural mecca and thriving tourist destination, Frank Browning reports.
Public Art Proves Its Worth
Dan Rosenfeld looks at two recent projects in L.A. that incorporate public art components and finds that "investments in public art may provide the highest financial returns of any funds committed to an aspect of a transit project."
Should Public Art Be Censored?
As public art proliferates as a strategy to engage disaffected youth and enliven neighborhoods, Philip Langdon argues that an additional standard must be considered when evaluating such projects -- their content.
Berlin to Open the Anti-Tivoli
An amusement park in East Berlin, abandoned for the past 11 years, will be reopened this year as a haven for public art, writes Julie Ma.
A Dating Site for Artists and Urban Canvases
Ariel Schwartz profiles ArtHERE, a matchmaking service intended to link artists with property owners eager to integrate public art into their buildings or landscapes.
Using Public Art to Highlight Government Misdeeds
John Metcalfe profiles the work of Spanish art collective luzinterruptus, who have used public art pieces to highlight the failings of Spanish authorities, such as Madrid's dysfunctional drinking fountains.
Melding Art With Infrastructure, Without Breaking the Bank
Walter Geiger pens a case study of an Orlando project that melded public art with mass transit, with maximum impact at minimal cost.
Art Creates a Sense of Place
Trail Towns, a program that promotes the economic potential of rails-to-trails systems, explains how art can create a sense of place and promote creative reuse along the trail.
Street Artist Makes Infrastructure Invisible
Street artist Cayetano Ferrer likes to take everyday urban objects like street signs or electrical boxes and use paint and stickers to camoflage them so they basically disappear.
New Library Making A Splash With Public Art
West Hollywood, California recently opened a new public library, hiring a number of prominent artists like Shepard Fairey to turn it into a local landmark.
How Art Improved New Yorks Metro System
In New York, Arts for Transit is a program that was started to bring "original and integrated artworks into MTA stations and spaces and to promote design excellence." Director, Sandra Bloodworth sits with Urban Omnibus to discuss the program.
How an Art Event Transformed Grand Rapids
ArtPrize, a yearly art festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is attracting unprecedented crowds to this unexpected destination.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
