From Kansas City Star
Goodbye "Rain Thicket," those branching metal tubes in Oppenstein Park. They used to spray water on passers-by, but the fountain has been inoperative for years.
Come summer, the pocket park at 12th and Walnut, owned by Jackson County, is getting a makeover, courtesy of Art in the Loop, the nonprofit foundation behind the recently erected Loop Artwall and the aluminum figures of bus riders at the KCATA Transit Plaza.
Recently Art in the Loop announced the winner of a major commission to reinvent the park as "a more vital public gathering space."
The proposed new scheme, centering on a large metal disc perforated with dots corresponding to the stars in the night sky and illuminated from below, is a project of 1995 Kansas City Art Institute graduate Laura DeAngelis.
The artist will work with a team including Kansas City-based Davison Architecture & Urban Design and Genus Landscape Architects from Des Moines, Iowa.
Kate Hackman, director of Art in the Loop, describes the planned six-foot-diameter disc as a "huge interactive star chart."
Viewers will be able to rotate the disc to mirror the constellations as they appear in the sky.
The "star disc" will be encircled by a low "wall" clad in architectural ceramic tiles with astronomy motifs.
Several rain gardens, filled with low-maintenance, colorful, indigenous plants, also are planned.
"The idea is to make fissures/gutters to harness and carry water to feed the rain gardens," Hackman said.
Hackman is fundraising to augment Art in the Loop's $500,000 five-year grant from an anonymous donor. The makeover also will get some city funding. They expect its completion by year's end.
The public can learn more about the DeAngelis design and others at a new exhibit, "Park Here," opening with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday at the Urban Culture Project Space, 21 E. 12th St.
And "Rain Thicket"? The sculpture, donated in 1981 when the park opened, will be disassembled and returned to Jackson County Parks and Recreation for potential display at another county site.
By Alice Thorson
