ASU Public Art Earns Valley Forward Award
The limestone and bronze public art work in front of ASU’s Parking Structure 7 earned an Award of Merit in the Art in Public Places category at the Valley Forward’s 25th annual Environmental Excellence Awards Program on September 9.
Valley Forward, a presence in the Valley since 1969, is devoted to promoting cooperative efforts that improve the environment and quality of life in the Phoenix area.
ASU’s award-winning design is the result of collaboration among public artists Stanton Sears and Andrea Myklebust, who worked hand-in-hand with landscape architects of Logan, Simpson Design to create Prickly/ Prickly/ Prickly/ Prickly/Spiny on the park-like, one-acre plaza in front of Parking Structure 7.
The area, located on the corner of Sixth Street and Packard Drive, gives both students and campus visitors an inviting place to meet, relax and hold pre-game gatherings. It features limestone columns and bronze sculptures inspired by trips to the nearby Desert Botanical Garden.
The artists integrated their design with the building's, architecture and landscape design, incorporating abstracted desert forms into the seating area. Numerous bronze insets that resemble the skin of the barrel cactus are inserted on the curved edge of the concrete seat wall, and five, 10-foot-tall, hand-carved limestone columns highlight large-scale images of agave, prickly pear and other desert life.
