Sculpture Walk

$25,000 for Sculpture toothbrush cleaning, and zilch for mosaic wall

l3wis May 19, 2015 6Comments

I don’t think this was a mistake, I believe with all the Downtown development, they kind of want the wall to go away, but a bad way to go about it;

But the maintenance has been sparse since the last segment of artwork was installed in 2009. And time is taking its toll.

Creators of the mosaic believe vibrations caused by the demolition of the nearby River Ramp in 2012 caused many of the tiles to loosen. Ice melt and other chemicals applied to the adjacent road in winter splashes up on the mosaic and contributes to a leaching that is staining the tiles.

“Having that type of wall next to a busy street with our winters just makes it problematic,” said Sue Quanbeck Etten, director of central services for the city.

But chemical splash isn’t the only issue here. The wall sits along a triangular piece of land that the city believes is prime for redevelopment. It’s trying to gauge private interest now in building on that site. Depending on the interest, the city wants to expand the River Greenway to that side of the Big Sioux much the same as has been done next to Cherapa Place and the Hilton Garden Inn on the east side.

No surprise though, like most things public art wise in Sioux Falls they mis-manage funds to support it, and when they do get it right they fail on maintenance. I think the Statue of David jinx us years ago.