The Downtown Greenway continues to move forward with a Call to Artists for the design of a Public Art Cornerstone and Accessible Playground, including site design, at the Innovation Cornerstone site at the corner of Lindsay and Murrow Boulevard.
Action Greensboro is seeking submissions of interest and qualifications from professional Artists who currently reside in the United States who will work with their own Artist-led Team to design, fabricate and install the third of four major public art cornerstones to be commissioned for the Downtown Greenway. The deadline for submissions is 5:00 pm on December 5, 2014. For more information about the Call to Artists, please click here. Direct questions to Barbara Peck, Greenway Public Art Consultant, at jbpeck@mac.com.
Greenway volunteers came out on a Saturday morning in June to learn how to prune, weed, and water the vegetation at Meeting Place at Tradition Cornerstone with the guidance of local organic gardening expert Charlie Headington. A rotating group of volunteers have committed to helping maintain the edible orchard every two weeks through the fall. Interested in helping? Contact Laura Lorenz at llorenz@actiongreensboro.org or 336.387.8355.
The Downtown Greenway has joined Pinterest and Foursquare. Go to http://www.pinterest.com/downtwngreenway/ and pin some of the cool Downtown Greenway art and site furnishings.
Then go to Foursquare at https://foursquare.com/downtwngreenway to find all the great art along the Downtown Greenway.
Over 50 people attended the ‘roof raising’ of the Meeting Place structure onto the Tradition Cornerstone site located at the corner of Smith and Prescott Streets in December. Lajos Heder, one of the artists from Harries + Heder Collaborative was on site to supervise the placing of the roof onto the structure.
A Big Belly solar-powered trash receptacle and drinking fountain have since been installed at the site. Work continues on the site and depending on the weather, plans are to have the site completed by the end of March 2014-just in time for Spring!
This will be a great site for picnics, family gatherings, birthday parties, and a place to have lunch during your workday. Look for an upcoming announcement for the ribbon cutting. We hope to see you there!
The Tradition Cornerstone is now under construction! Developed by artists Mags Harries & Lajos Heder, the second of four cornerstones along the Downtown Greenway is located at the intersection of Smith & Spring Streets in the northwest corner of the 4-mile loop. Work has begun and will continue through March 2014. Click here for photos and more information about the design and fabrication process.
The comment period has ended; however you can still view the plans for the 50% design of Phase 2 and the Tradition Cornerstone.
To review the 50% design plans for Phase 2, please click each document below:
Phase 2 Plans-Exhibit 1
Phase 2 Plans-Exhibit 2
Rendering of Phase 2
To view the design of the Tradition Cornerstone by Harries & Héder, click here.
If you have questions, please contact Dabney Sanders, Project Manager, at dsanders@actiongreensboro.org.
With April coming to a close, this weekend is a good time to sneak in some last minute plants and flowers. Greensboro’s permaculture expert and Downtown Greenway consultant Charlie Headington offers a few ideas to feed the "thieves" and other beneficial insects needed to maintain a healthy organic garden.
"Some for the thieves, some for the birds, and some for us," Charlie says. "Beneficial insects manage the not-so-beneficial insects, or insects that we don't want. In an organic garden, you let insects manage other insects."
Butterfly Garden
Butterfly Bush - attracts the yellow swallowtail butterfly
Butterfly Weed - a bright orange flower, which attracts monarch butterflies
Pawpaw Tree - produces edible fruit, which attracts the zebra swallowtail butterfly
Ground cover plants that attract beneficial insects
Ajuga
Stonecrop
Strawberry
Pennyroyal
White clover (attracts honeybees for clover honey)
Hide a fence or garden wall
Trumpet honeysuckle (for the hummingbirds)
[caption id="attachment_1816" align="alignright" width="300"] Charlie Headington's plans for the West Smith and Prescott Streets' cornerstone orchard.[/caption]
These plants and flowers will be included in the proposed orchard and garden design that Charlie created for the West Smith and Prescott Street area near the Greenway. Read the Greensboro News & Record article on the garden’s planned design and for more information about the planned sculptures and seating area designed by Boston, MA, architects Mags Harries and Lajos Héder.
Learn more about Permaculture Gardening with Charlie Headington. Charlie is hosting a Permaculture Gardening Workshop on Saturday, April 27. To register, email charlie.headington@gmail.com.
If you were unable to attend the Public Meetings on April 10 and 11, you still have a chance to share your thoughts about the 50% Design Plans for Phase 2 (Murrow Boulevard and Lee Street to Fisher/Greene) and on the proposed design of the Tradition Cornerstone by Harries & Héder. Click here to take the survey. Comments can be submitted online through Friday, April 26. We appreciate your input!
To review the 50% design plans for Phase 2, please click each document below:
Phase 2 Plans-Exhibit 1
Phase 2 Plans-Exhibit 2
Rendering of Phase 2
To view the design of the Tradition Cornerstone by Harries & Héder, click here.
If you have questions, please contact Dabney Sanders, Project Manager, at dsanders@actiongreensboro.org.
Join us for a Ribbon Cutting Celebration of Phase 3B on Smith Street between Eugene and Spring Streets on Wednesday, April 10 from 3:15–4:00 pm, followed by a Community Input Meeting to share your thoughts on the proposed design for the Tradition Cornerstone by Harries & Heder and on the 50% design plan for Phase 2 (Murrow Boulevard and East Fisher Avenue) from 4:00–6:00 pm on April 10.
If you are not able to join us on April 10 for the Ribbon Cutting and Community Input meeting, please join us for a second chance to share your comments of the proposed designs on Thursday, April 11 from 11:00 am–1:00 pm.
The Ribbon Cutting and Community Input Meetings on April 10 and 11 will be held at the clubhouse at the Greenway at Fisher Park Apartments located at 404 West Smith Street.
Click here for a public meeting flyer. Questions? Contact Action Greensboro at 379.0821.
Dabney Sanders: We knew from the early planning stages for the Downtown Greenway that we wanted public art to be a major component of this 4-mile loop, and we are using North Carolina artists to create benches, much like the bench that I am sitting on now, here in Morehead Park. The process to select artists involves submitting their qualifications and examples of prior work. Then we select the artist and ask that they come to Greensboro, meet with the neighborhoods, learn the neighborhood vision as well as its history, and then create a proposal for a bench that reflects the area. We have commissioned three artists to date, and two of those artist benches have been installed. The first one is a bench called Five Points that Gary Gresko from Oriental, North Carolina, designed. It reflects the history of the Warnersville neighborhood, which is a fascinating history that many people in Greensboro are not aware of. So, we are pleased to be able to tell that story as people enjoy and use the Greenway.
Gary Gresko: These are glacial boulders dug up right out of this site to represent the bedrock of this community and the beginning of the Greenway project. So there are five boulders placed here, one behind each bench—each a symbol representing the community.
Xandra Eden: There is a nice kind of open communication in all aspects of moving toward this project because the idea is we want this Greenway to be loved, appreciated, and used by the neighborhoods that are nearby—not just plopped down out of nowhere. We want the benches to be a part of each community. The best approach is to communicate with each community and make sure that the bench is something they are going to love, and that will enrich their lives.
Dabney Sanders: The bench that I am sitting on now is called Inside/Out, created by Ben Kastner and Toby Keeton from Wilmington, North Carolina. In this particular area,we did not have a neighborhood in exactly the same way that we had in Warnersville. So we did look at history, and this area where we are sitting had originally been a part of Governor John Motley Morehead’s property—a large property that has now been whittled down to just a few acres. His home was Blandwood, which sits about a half block away from us. And we looked at the fact that this had been called the Morehead neighborhood.
The artist looked at some furniture in Blandwood—some historical pieces that had a good story to tell. He decided to create these outdoor pieces using steel and concrete, and recreate them as an outdoor living room. The artist talked about seeing the Greenway as an inviting place for people to enjoy, but then stop for a little respite and perhaps have a conversation with somebody they do not know. This seating arrangement provides a welcoming opportunity to converse.
The next bench that we are planning is still in the design phase, and will be located near the Fisher Park neighborhood. The artist , Jeanette Brossart from Durham, North Carolina, has already held some community meetings with the Fisher Park neighborhood. We are looking forward to seeing the end product at the end of 2013 or early 2014.
