The Passengers

The Passengers is a site-specific public art piece commissioned for a commercial property located at the eastern most end of Sarasota, Florida’s Main Street. It is a wall hung, multi-element sculpture of powder-coated ¼” aluminum plate.

Passengers

The sculpture is a visual reminder of the former use of the site as the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Depot. The depot operated from 1925 to 1971. The design evolved from consideration of the traditional architectural elements of both the original building and the new building and the historic nature of the property. The exact site was selected for providing the best view corridor and integration with the existing structures, signage, sidewalks and roadways.

This is the story…………

Location
Site of Sarasota’s 1925 railroad station
Historic significance
Choosing the location for the sculpture
Designing
Engineering
Proposed design selected
Loading into the computer for cutting
Aluminum plate is cut with a water jet
Sculpture elements are inspected
and counted to be sure none were missed
Waiting for welding
Brackets applied to fasten sculpture to the wall
Bracket detail
Elements are sanded, smoothed after brackets are welded
Elements await transport to powdercoater
Elements are powder – coated with a black finish and given a final protective coating
Elements are delivered and ready for installation
Awaiting hanging
Lining up, measuring for the tenth time!
The step – first element on
All remaining elements are installed forward of the step
Lining up the figures
Put up, take down, positioning each element
Repositioning
The brackets were designed to seemingly disappear
It’s a tedious process
Installation complete!
The plaque
The Passengers
Landscaping added
The artist with her piece
By holding the elements away from the wall shadows add dimension to the piece
The design required proper scaling of the elements to the proportions of the building
Walking away…….
Looking back from a distance
The entire site
Location of sculpture

The sculpture was approved by the City of Sarasota’s Public Art Committee and Sarasota’s City Commission in February 2012 and installed April 2012.