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 February 2012 and installed April 2012.