Tell City Hall About Fayetteville St. Art

Dana,
As always, thank you for making this information so accessible. Here is a copy of the email I just sent:
“Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to comment on the proposed Plensa sculpture. First, I would strongly encourage the City to work with this internationally renowned artist to come up with a creative sculpture that will help to continue the rebirth of downtown. This is both in the sense of something new and exciting happening and also continuing to create a unique city center. Given Raleigh’s vast suburbanization, our downtown may be one of our only features that we can strive to make our own.
That noted, I think that a design that will stand the test of time and not require extensive maintenance should be stressed. Having the lit canopy over the street may be appropriate for special occasions (perhaps one that is not permanent but can be put up for festivals or special events can be suggested), but over the long term, I think it will look dated and not create a timelessness that works best. Aside from that I think the current design has wonderful potential.
Thank you for giving consideration to this comment.
Ron…
Resident of the City of Raleigh

While I appreciate that Ron T. sent his letter, I disagree with the premise (that I read between the lines in his letter) which I read as “scrap the original plan” altogether and have him do something else. I don’t think internationally renowned artists want to or should be directed by us on what to do. Rather, they should be challenged to address the specific concerns that the city has and come back with more information that will allay our concerns. I also disagree that everything has to be timeless. Besides the subjectiveness around the word timeless, may I offer that mankind’s stamp on the “environment” through architecture, music, cinema, art, etc. has always provided us with understanding about who we are, where we come from and where we are going. For instance, the optimism for the future of the post WWII war era through the early 60′s, has provided us our much beloved mid-century modern history. This era was not considered “timeless” (which in Raleigh often means traditional) at their time but has proven to be timeless in terms of clean modern design. We should not be afraid of taking risks because it’s often those risks that offer the greatest rewards. Without risk we would not have a Gateway Arch in St. Louis, an Eiffel Tower in Paris or a Space Needle in Seattle.
In the end, you don’t commission one of the world’s greatest public spaces artists and then tie his hands. It stops being art at that moment.

BTW, here is my letter…
Dear Mayor Meeker, City Council Members and city manager: Russell Allen,
As an actual Downtown Raleigh homeowner, I want to send my support for Plensa’s proposed art installation.
12 years ago when I first invested in downtown, people told me I was crazy. They told me it was dangerous. They told me it was a bad investment. The voices almost all came from the suburban neighborhoods.
I suspect that the many citizen voices that oppose the Plensa project are also coming from the suburbs. It’s just a hunch.
In any case, the voices that told me NOT to invest in the “city” are the very ones that (still) today tell me that there’s nothing to do downtown and that’s why they never come. It shocks me that people can be so ignorant about the truth of downtown.
The neighborhood that can emerge from the Fayetteville St. renaissance has the opportunity at this moment in time to define its future path. That path can be cosmopolitan and leverage the arts scene of nearby City Market and the Performing Arts Center. We can choose a path that leverages the unique opportunity that Raleigh has to increasingly become the cultural and creative epicenter of the Triangle: leading our neighbors, our region and our state into the future. It’s an exciting time for Raleigh! Our explosive growth, recent sports accomplishments and being named to list after list as one of the best and most creative places in the country are things that Raleigh should hold dear. However, we should also realize that the increased exposure comes with responsibility to take the next step forward.
I applaud the fact that the city has not killed the Plensa proposal. I applaud that the Art’s Commission has now been involved. Let’s work out how the Plensa vision can become a reality instead of killing it. Let’s appreciate the gift that Mr. Goodnight has offered to our city (even if it’s not the whole amount anymore). Let’s show our neighbors in Chapel Hill and Durham that we aren’t the stodgy, boring and uncreative place that they think we are.
PS: On a related note, let’s consider moving the Time+Light Tower to Fayetteville St/Performing Arts Center. Its effects are not appreciated where it now stands because the morning and afternoon sun angles do not correspond with the incoming and outgoing traffic patterns of commuters. Majority of traffic is inbound when its effects are noticeable on the outbound lanes and vice versa. Let’s find a place where it can be appreciated by leveraging sun angles for viewing.

The last sentence of my second paragraph suggests changes far short of scrapping the original idea.
I do agree that timelessness is subjective, maybe what I was suggesting we try to avoid is something that for lack of a better word is gimmicky and quickly looks like last year’s carnival.
Given today’s propensity to mix corporate with public, how long might it take before the City realized that to finance the maintenance of the display ads could be sold and projected on the canopy. Or in the least corporate names mixed in with whatever text Plensa may have in mind.
I appreciate John’s thoughts very much though. Differing opinions is what makes this site interesting.
I think art designed to be public art, needs to be distinguished from art that is created in private and then offered to the public. In the case of the latter, I completely agree with John. Let the artist run with it – have at it so to speak. But when s/he is done, the public may not buy it. Where art is commissioned, the artist should be given parameters. I am sure the public authorities in St. Louis, Paris, and Seattle had some say, if not a great deal of say in the design of those structures.

Singing the virtues of the time and light tower? Nobody is gonna touch that.

The Time+Light Tower was put in the wrong place from the begining.
From what I understand, the citizens of Paris were in an uproar over the Eiffel Tower when it was built. They built it anyway and the city now has a globally defining icon.
Thanks Ron T. for the cordial debate.

Excuse me, but are you comparing the string of LED lights with the Eiffel Tower, The Arch or the Sky Needle (or whatever it is in Seattle)???
Not even close…
I will say that Ron T’s point about commissioned art and public art are different with different objectives. However, in this case I believe this was commissioned by Capitol Broadcasting and give as a public gift…so that makes it a little more confusing.
I am not in love with the art and don’t see it drawing thousands of tourist into downtown Raleigh from all over the globe, not to mention all over Eastern North Carolina.

There is plenty of art that doesn’t speak to me but that’s ok. I can still appreciate it as art. The question I ask is, “Should public money be spent on public art?” My answer is yes. I kind of like the time-light tower. One day that stretch of Capital Blvd. won’t be filled with run down warehouses and XXX stores. That tower will be even cooler then. Thank goodness for creative, forward thinking people.

nc_litigator was not comparing the Eiffel tower with the LED lights as pieces of art; he was comparing the citizens of Paris’ (19th-century) attitudes with the citizens of Raleigh’s (21st-century) the installation of public art. How sad it is that Raleigh voices such outdated 19th-century attitudes about public art!
No one singular piece of art (or architecture or event) is going to attract flocks of tourists to any city year-round; what will, though, is a critical mass of interesting things to do and see and discover that will make a city memorable. Raleigh does not have one thing to make it stand out. It’s as provincial as when I was born there. I find that so sad.
I wish Raleigh had an appetite for things that are new.

Raleigh is not Minneapolis…but there is the Andy Griffith statue to pair with the Mary Tyler Moore Statue. But alas, not spoon bridge or waterfall!

and, no Walker Art Center, no Renzo Piano-designed public library (though the new one at Cameron Village is ok), no Guthrie theater… Raleigh was more open to new ideas in the 40s than it is now. At least N.C. can boast of the Black Mt. College. If only Raleigh could be a half as open as Minneapolis, it might be an interesting place to live.

As a Southern Democrat I was shocked when I attended a fund raiser in Minneapolis my first month I moved there…Talk about a difference in parties!!!
The same Democratic party in NC that elected Jesse Helms term after term is NOT the same Democratic party that had Paul Wellstone as its leader in MN!!!!!
Part of what makes Raleigh, Raleigh is that it is rather “provincial”.
But hey, I think anything outside the beltine is part of the UNION army territory. I don’t like it…no need to travel north of Millbrook.
Don’t get me wrong. I am all for “progress”, but does this project really make a statement about Raleigh or does it just say…”HEY>>>WE WANT TO BE DIFFERENT….but we are not”?

Don’t you fret, Q. We’re gonna make it after all!

anyone know the name of the artist who designed/installed the gate/sculpture that is just to the north of memorial auditorium at the north end of the parking lot, actually in the middle of what, one day will be the extension of fayetteville street? its a really nice piec… just saw it for the first time last night. if you haven’t seen it, check it out…