Progress Made on Freeway Overpass Art

Last Tuesday I visited a Santa Clara Valley Transit Yard to see the test pours of student pattern designs which will be used on the freeway overpass of Tully and 101 in San Jose. It was very exciting to see the art brought to life at this scale and it will be wonderful to see the final pours done on site at the freeway pedestrian and bike overpass.

In addition to the student patterns on the walls of the overpass, there will be student patterns showcased on the laser cut steel panels on the entry pillars to the bridge. Below are images of one of the three panel designs. The final panels will be powder coated with color. Past postings on this project can be seen here: Student Pattern Reflections on Community and here: Student Patterns for Freeway. 

Some of the digital photo patterns students created were integrated as large window decals for a conceptual bus stop shelter for the 2012 Zero1 Biennial.

Student Patterns for Freeway Art

Two pattern designs for concrete form lines. The designs will be used as concrete impressions along freeway 101 and bike and pedestrian overpass at both Tully and Capitol Expressway exchanges. These student designs are by Noemi V. and Raquel V. at Renaissance Academy in San Jose, CA. Below are the original art by the students. Project supported by the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs and the VTA. Landscape Architecture firm is HMH.

Below are three sets of designs for the laser cut pillars.

Pattern set above by Anagolis R., Dung P. and Alyna C..

Pattern set above by Ayana J., Dominque W. and Alexis R.

Pattern set above by Jacqueline C., Vanessa C., and Jacqueline A.

Laser Cutting Student Art in Steel

I am beginning to prep San Jose student works for laser cuttings for steel designs to be incorporated into freeway art. The student art will be traced in Illustrator and exported as CAD compatible files. A test file is being sent to the laser cutters to see if I correctly create the file. Keeping my fingers crossed!

More Student Work for Freeeway Project

Studies using 6th Grade student pattern art for concrete impressions for side of freeway walls for Highway 101 in San Jose, California.

Student Design Integration into Freeway Public Art

It is an interesting challenge to begin to explore ways to integrate student patterns into designs for concrete and laser cut metal. The freeway public art project that will incorporate student reflections on community is now at a phase where we need to address fabrication constraints. There will be metal "gateway" pillars and concrete wall patterns at the 101/Tulley and 101/Capitol Expressway freeway passes in San Jose, California built in April 2012. We are using Repper Pro to create the digital patterns from photos for some of the components.

Below are a few student sketches and beginning studies for fabrication. I am hoping that student statements about their designs will also be somehow linked at City of San Jose website.
Renaissance Academy, 6th Grade Student Radial Pattern sampling:

"Tamales" by Alyna C.

"Viva la Comunidad de Mexico en San Jose"
by Vanessa C.

"Cherry Blossom" by Ayana J.

"Nature Awaken" by Dominique

"Hot Delicious Food" by Dung P.

"Our Community of the Sun" by Luis C.

"Las Paletas" by Anayolis R.

Below: rough concept studies for large laser cut metal patterns for gateway pillars. (Yes, ligatures are needed so that there are no floating pieces, but these sketches are simply for concept and need to be refined a lot for fabrication. Designs will be digitally re rendered as vector based files (in Illustrator) and exported as either .DWG or .DXF files (AutoCAD format) for laser cutting.

Each of three panel designs will fall along a theme of either food, culture/celebration or environment/nature. The pattern studies below draw from selected student paper designs and from student digital photo patterns created in Repper Pro.