Last Art Wall DONE: Houston Recycles

All artwork for the Houston Permitting Center is now complete. It's done. Every bit of it. Amazing. The rest of the artists finished their installations by mid-June, but I did not even begin on the basement corridor wall until late June. This last text intervention runs along 88 feet of basement corridor and was completed just yesterday.

For a long time, I've felt like that fairy tale cobbler whose children are the very last to get shoes. Turned out to be OK as HPD is not moving into their new offices off this long corridor for another week. It's still pretty quiet in the basement.

This past weekend, Robynn Sanders, she of art car fame, finished hand painting the last small section of the basement's 88 foot long corridor and then applied the protective 'green' top coat. I'd say that corridor is quite a piece of work.

Robynn spent several weekends tracing elaborate patterns of words on those 88 feet. Once traced, she filled in each letter or character with absolutely 'green' paint. She was not too happy with the thickness of 'green' paint. In places, it looks more like water color, but we decided that is just fine.

The story of this particular wall begins months ago when I contemplated a laser cut, powder coated strip of metal that ran the length of the corridor. A sort of ribbon or banner of recycling words in lots of languages. I thought that the very length of the piece would convey the message that it is always time to recycle, rethink, repurpose, reuse, refine, redo and on and on.

The first step was to create a list of as many English words that began with 're' as I could. Got almost 50 words within minutes. Made me want to go back to the Latin root and learn a little more about 're' words.

Somewhere along the way, I scrapped the idea of the long metal 'ribbon' of words and began to think about painted words. Kelly Musebeck of S.O. Creatives introduced me to Robynn Sanders and that was it.

Then, with my list of 're' words in hand, I looked for translators, so that we might have similar words in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic. I wanted this wall to show the universality of the recycling message as well as the diversity of Houston. Significant populations in this city speak each of these languages.

Working with the translators was a joy, because each translator was truly interested in the project and genuinely pleased that their community would be represented on this wall. My thanks to Mary Cee for Vietnamese translations, Najwa Barazi for Arabic words and phrases, to Yat Chong at S.O. Creatives for Spanish translations and Dr. Richard Smith for Chinese translations. When I contacted Rich, he was in China on sabbatical. Isn't email wonderful? He sent the words back to Houston in a day's time.

Sometimes, it really does take a village. Gathering translations for this undertaking became an example of one of the wall's messages. Diversity, inclusiveness. We're all in this together. I like that. Hope to get all the translators together soon for a look at the corridor - and all the rest of the facility. Hope Robynn will be there too to meet the folks whose words she painted.

Here is the last section of the wall, the one closet to the reception area. All the words and characters here are about redoing, reversing, beginning again, starting over. Which of course means walking back the length the corridor to the elevators. Making something circular out of a straight line.

I especially like that small Arabic character near the recycling logo. It's very simple, nothing long winded. It means, "Do it again." "Once more." Perfect.

It is also fun to know that Arabic is read from right to left, so the walk to the elevators is just fine for reading that particular set of words. Again, we are taking a straight line (that would be the corridor) and allowing it to become a circle of repetitive messages.

So there you have it. Thank you to all who contributed to this wall. It was a real collaboration. Thank you very much.

Recreate/Houston/Reuse: Words On a Wall

Yesterday afternoon and evening, Robynn Sanders painted the first section of the 88 foot long basement corridor wall. We are working with recycling and all kinds of 're-words' in five languages, the concept being to reflect the cultural diversity in Houston and the universality of remaking, recycling and reinventing.

Now that I've just written the word 'reinventing,' it occurs to me that this word speaks directly, not only to diversity, but to the opportunity that Houston offers each of us to reinvent ourselves using individual talents and skills. So, this 88 foot wall does not only carry a recycling message. It goes further than that to say that in Houston, "We can reinvent both ourselves and our city. We can grow ourselves and our city." I may be getting a bit too metaphorical and poetic here, but you get what where this wall could go.

Here are photos from yesterday. Robynn has found it a challenge to use 'green' paint, as it seems to be thinner both on the wall and on the brush. It is definitely not lush and creamy.

Here's the palette she mixed. Blue for English, terra cotta for Spanish, red for Chinese, green for Vietnamese and teal for Arabic, plus a dose of gray for the recycling logo.

Here are the first two words or characters being painted. Spanish and Chinese.

Najwa, the wonderful lady who worked with me on Arabic translations, chuckled when she saw these two photos, because Phil is painting the Arabic from left to right. Arabic reads from right to left. Doesn't matter. Those who can read it, will move their eyes from right to left.

The genesis of this wall occurred last fall when I attended the ribbon cutting for Neighborhood Centers' new Gulfton campus, where I learned that their clients speak over 80 different languages. Wow! Gulfton is just one part of Houston, a microcosm of the whole. I loved the fact that so many languages are used right here in my city. What a gift.

I suppose I could have visited Gulfton to collect the word 'recycle' in 80 languages. I did not do that. But I did think about using more than English and Spanish words. I wrote a list of English words that begin with re-. It was easy to come up with nearly 50 in a few minutes time. In retrospect, it might have been fun to play with the Latin root word from whence so many of these words come from. I digress.

The making of this wall has been very much a collaborative experience. To obtain 're-words' in at least five languages, I reached out to friends who speak the language I wanted or have a friend who can. As things progressed, at least a dozen people were involved in making or confirming translations. I am still toying with adding in at least a word or two of French and Russian, both languages well represented in Houston. I may still call friends for one or two more words. After all, this wall is 88 feet long and a work in progress.

This wall has become an unexpected joy on which to work, because it involved so many Houstonians. What might have happened if we'd involved 100? I see another project down the road.

Count Down: Three More Days

A multitude of things went on in the building today. Agnes Welsh Eyster's etched metal panels on the 'meet and greet' reception center were uncovered. Makes for an impressive welcoming area. Folks were focused on final punch lists. There was lots of vacuuming and dusting, hundreds more yellow boxes moved in and mountains of folded up corrugated boxes left the site.

City folks with badges kept arriving to check on their new space, many of them marveling at everything they saw. They were a real treat to watch.

Here are the decision makers, managing the punch lists, the furniture move-in and all the tasks that must be completed before Manhattan turns the facility over the the city.

By the way, this was the first day that some of us didn't wear hard hats every single moment. I can hardly wait to get out of my closed toed winter shoes and wear summer sandals in this building. I'll do that on Monday.

Channel 45 interviewed Mark McAvoy, the building's administrator, and I heard him giving 'green' facts and figures - surely THE STORY of this facility.

Kaneem Smith was installing more of her burlap coffee bag columns this morning and 45 interviewed her too. I also did a sound bite saying that the civic art in this building mirrored the city's green goals and Houston's energy and diversity.

A&E Graphics came to install two of my text walls. We began on Level 3, but soon found that the wallpaper was too short for the wall space. A miscommunication of measurements, so we moved to the cashier's wall in the lobby.

That installation worked really well and the wall is terrific looking. Months ago I went to the Houston Public Library to look at old blueprints and maps. Selected almost two dozen and asked S.O. Creatives to design a layered wall montage.

Images include a blueprint of the Astrodome that shows home base, a Houston survey map from 1886, a portion of a page from Hines Interests' Galleria drawings, a blueprint of the original Houston airport (that would be before Hobby Airport), a snippet of a drawing from St. Paul's Methodist Church, this one I selected because the building committee included Mr. Jones and Mr. Fondren.

When the cashier's wall installation was complete, I moved one of three printers back against the wall where it belongs. Thought if I positioned it, it would stay put. I wanted to make sure that 'Hines Interests' showed at the bottom of the montage. After all, it was Jerry Hines who brought my former husband and me to Houston way back in 1967, just about they broke ground for One Shell Plaza. That was when you could still see the Esperson Building as a part of the downtown skyline. But I digress.

Left the building after 3:00 to run over to A&E to talk about resizing the wallpaper for level 3. On the way home, I stopped at Goode Company Taqueria for two catfish dinners to go. Place was empty at 5:00.

OK, this post is done. Done for the day. Next? A couple of episodes of The Closer. And then back to the building tomorrow morning. It isn't done until it's done.

Sign Language in Plexi

While Serena was installing her work in the basement stairwell, I was on levels 2 and 3 with S.O. Creatives and their fabricator, installing three plexi sign language statements that, depending on your point of view, are absolutely true. Or will be a point of further conversation.

Kelly projected the images on each wall, so we got the right width between each sign. Then the statements were installed, one hand sign at a time.

Here's how the walls read in a language other than signing:

"Fewer problems down the road, if you solve the issues today." Even I can read the third 'sign,' a single hand signaling 'down'.

"Code spoken here with skill, nuance and great authority." We installed this statement on level 3, where Earl Greer's plan reviewers receive engineers, architects, designers and persons of interest. I like the word 'nuance.'

The third statement, "The code is a powerful tool for building a great city", was installed in Thursday's Final Review Conference Area on level 2.

I like all three of these statements on those stark white walls. They're colorful and spare and almost seem to dance or move as if in a breeze.

More On Blue Sky Below Ground Level

Serena Lin Bush and her crew worked really hard last Wednesday and Thursday on her installation of five monitors in the basement stairwell. Each monitor connects to one of three cameras on the roof of 1002 Washington Avenue. The cameras face three views to the north and continuously record Houston sky, sending images to those monitors at the bottom of the central staircase.

Crew and collaborators included Cory Lowe and Jody Cochran, both co-workers with Serena at Aniden Interactive. Cory and Jody contributed the requisite IT knowledge to make the artwork function as envisioned. Serena's father-in-law, John Bush, joined the group for installation.

The effect of sky at the bottom of a stairwell is quite wonderful. Wonderful because seeing sky in real time in the basement is unexpected. Wonderful because folks will have to ponder why the monitors were put in that specific location in the first place. Wonderful because the monitors never vary the viewpoint.

Is this art? Is this a part of the functioning of this new green building? After a first look, it's my hope that folks simply enjoy the skyscapes and see that by watching the monitors, they can follow weather changes and the time of day.

I hope that the folks who will charge up and down these stairs every day take time for a glance upward to see daylight and sky at the very top of the staircase.

Then, I hope they look all the way down to see the same sky displayed on monitors at the bottom of the staircase. Which, of course, is the point of it all. See more of Serena's work on her website.

Now, for more on the installation itself. After the monitors were set in place, Serena and her father-in-law went up on the roof to readjust the camera angles so no freeway or horizon will show in the images.

For a short time during the adjustment process, we got a portrait instead of the sky. Serena's piece opens itself up to so many more ideas.

After lunch, an unanticipated activity began to bear down on us. That would be the process of cleaning the central staircase. The staircase was already blocked off because of sections of wet concrete at the base of each floor.

Mid-afternoon, I began to hear more noise than usual and it just got closer and louder. Suddenly, we had two workmen on the stair steps right over the installation. One workman was very busy chipping away dirt from the concrete steps and the other was following with a shop vac. There is so much going on in this building right now. Move-ins begin June 17 and cleaning seems to go on continually.

However, with the workmen sweeping and blowing on the very steps under which Serena and crew were working, one had to laugh at the insanity. Neither tears or irritation would have done any good. Serena covered her monitors with the boxes in which they were packed and we hope for the best. I can see that these monitors may be vulnerable forever. Who knows when folks will accidentally drop pencils or cell phones down the stairwell? Or decide to throw coins as into a fountain. Who knows?

What I do know is that this building has one more terrific piece of civic art. Gives me goose bumps. How about you?

Blue Sky At the Bottom of the Stairs

Serena Lin Bush will be back this morning to finish her installation of five monitors in the stairwell of the Houston Permitting Center's central staircase. I get goose bumps every time I describe her piece her someone. I just love her idea of bringing Houston sky to a sunless space.

Serena mounted three cameras on the roof of the building and they are now recording Houston's skies in real time and transferring the images down into the basement. What could be better than that for folks who work and visit this below ground floor. Check the weather by checking the stairwell.

Moving the Meter

In another life, when I was president of the Greater East End Management District, my program director would review each day's efforts and ask if we'd 'moved the meter.' I began to pick up on that theme and now the phrase is part of my vocabulary, part of my way of evaluating the day or a job. Did we move the meter?

Well, today, we moved the meter on several different fronts. Charles Masterson is hard at work fabricating the panels for Dick Wray's tower and they should be complete early next week and delivered to the site for installation. It should be amazing to watch Dick Wray's four story design take shape. If one were to film the process and rerun at high speed, the process might almost be like one of those picture flip books. Behold, the tower rises!

We did postpone two installations until next week. May seem like a step backward, but not really. Simply made sense as there is still a lot of work going on in the lobby.

We postponed Kaneem Smith's installation until next Wednesday. With the new date, I also know that all her paint and fire retardant application will be totally dry, bells will be affixed and wire strung. We'll be able to complete her installation all in one day and I'm thinking that surely the dust in the lobby may have settled by next Wednesday. That will be a real plus. The dust is pretty intense this week. There's a lot of 'finishing' going on.

We also postponed my two A & E wallpaper installations and a good thing we did. The cashier's area was carpeted today, wall paint was touched up and the door to the space was being installed when I left late this afternoon. There was no way we could have hung wallpaper there today.

Good news. Jesse Sifuentes and his helper Juan Jimenez got that second enormous canvas mural up this afternoon on the first try. All the hardware worked and the piece is level in its inset. It's still under wraps - because of the dust and activity in the area. But there it hangs, right next to what will be a coffee shop for employees and the public.

Jesse and Juan were jubilant. Manhattan's Charlie Genella stopped by on his rounds and there was lots of hand shaking and smiles.

Tomorrow, I'll pick up more Studio Red hard hats for Serena Lin Bush and her crew. They will arrive at 9:00 to install her monitors in the stairwell pit and hook them up to cameras on the roof. I can hardly wait to see her artwork in action.

While Serena is at work in the stairwell, another crew will be arriving at 10:00 to install three plexi sign language text walls on levels 2 and 3.

At the very end of tomorrow, I meet with Robynn Sanders and we will walk the upper floors and spot specific locations for her painted text interventions. She return next week to paint those small interventions. We hope they make folks smile. A chuckle or two might be nice.

Am I tired? Most certainly. And I look it too. Am I pleased with the installations, thus far?Absolutely.

The meter moved today. And I suspect it will move tomorrow too. Thanks to all who are making all the pieces of this project happen.