Immerse

May 26, 2021

Artist Selected to Design Functional Public Art Pocket Park

A pocket park is coming to Scottsdale! The city of Scottsdale asked Scottsdale Public Art to help create an artist-designed pocket park on the northwest side of the One Civic Center building, located at the intersection of Indian School Road and Drinkwater Boulevard. This will be a demonstration project to show how a pocket park can be designed and integrated into Scottsdale’s urban environment.

Aerial view of pocket park location outlined in red. Base map provided by Google Maps.

Sculptor and furniture-maker Michael Beitz was chosen by a selection panel of project stakeholders to design this new park space with both public art and seating functionality in mind. “I’m interested in making artwork that looks like sculpture, that also looks like something you’d want to sit down on,” Beitz says.

Images of past public artworks/seating sculptures by Michael Beitz. Photos: Provided by Michael Beitz.

One of the reasons Beitz was selected by the panel was that, during his interview, he provided a series of sketches showing both his creative process and some initial ideas for the pocket park space.

Concept sketches by Michael Beitz.

“I like to play with design as an art form . . . to create places for people to feel good, and then the artwork is activated by the people.”

Michael Beitz
Concept sketches by Michael Beitz.

The final design is still being developed and may end up looking different from the initial ideas presented here.

You can learn more about this artist and project by checking out this great KJZZ radio interview.


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