Photo provided by Exhibit Columbus
PAU will present “Interoculus” at Washington and Fourth Streets, in canopy form to revitalize the downtown in both day and night.
A downtown intersection that is playing host to an Exhibit Columbus installation will see some closures today and become an all-way stop for the time being.
The Columbus Board of Works has approved a right of way request from Duke Energy for work at the intersection of Fourth Street and Washington Street in downtown Columbus, which is scheduled to occur from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. Periods of closure are expected, said Columbus Executive Director of Public Works Dave Hayward.
“It would be a good place for people to avoid …,” he said.
Duke Energy will be removing streetlights and wire from poles, and Signal Construction will be removing traffic signals. The work is being done in preparation for the installation of the exhibit.
According to Hayward, the traffic signals will be replaced with an all-way stop. When asked how long the intersection will remain an all-way stop, he said it will depend on how long the installation is in place. Once it is gone, city officials will reevaluate the site.
“What we’re doing is evaluating how well the intersection works as an all-way stop rather than a signal light intersection,” he said. “And a lot of that is how pedestrians react to the all-way stop and how vehicles yield to pedestrians.”
Exhibit Columbus’ 2023 exhibition will open Aug. 25 and 26 in downtown Columbus. This year’s theme is “Public by Design.”
The exhibit coming to Fourth and Washington is “Interoculus,” by J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipient Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU).
According to a description of the project, the installation’s canopy form, celebratory purpose and “equitable invitation” were derived from an extensive community engagement process and are inspired by a variety of influences, including the Pantheon in Rome, “local carnival vernacular,” ice cream sundaes from Zaharakos, and Miami and Shawnee wigwams.
“By recycling the intersection’s existing street poles and piggybacking on their infrastructure, the design seeks to create an egalitarian visual and physical destination that revitalizes downtown day and night through the experiences of suspension, projection, and illumination,” the description states.
This year, for the first time since Exhibit Columbus began, the organization has appointed a group of Community Curators, with each one acting as the liaison on a Miller Prize installation.
Hayward, who is the community curator for “Interoculus,” said that the city will be reassessing certain elements of the Fourth and Washington intersection during the exhibition season.
For instance, he noted that the streetlights at the intersection are obsolete and need to be replaced.
“We’ll evaluate, once the new sculpture is in place, just what we need for lighting,” Hayward said. “And ultimately when the sculpture comes back down, we’ll decide what we need for permanent lighting. That’ll probably be part of a much bigger project to reconstruct the whole downtown streetscape district.”
