"A City of Optimists"
Date
Credits
- Sharon Dowell Designer
Format
- Installation 15
- Environmental Design 10
- Tiles 4
Type of Work
- Finished work 5481
Techniques
- embossing 15
Locations Made
- United States 727
- Charlotte 23
- North Carolina 4
"An isolated plot in proximity to a large rail yard and various industrial properties, juxtaposed with the growing development of the nearby NoDa art district." Sharon Dowell, an artist who uses a select color pallet used mandarin, kiwi, teal, and gray mosaic tiles, to enhance the 400 feet of wall along the switchback ramps and stairs winding up to the 25th St CATS (Charlotte Area Transit System) light rail station in Charlotte, NC. There are 10 mosaics in total - five of them are on the south ramp and the other five on the north ramp, both mirroring each other. With the carefully planned designs on the ramp walls, the colors extend upward onto sections of standard fencing above her mosaics, engaging riders as they approach the platform. The metal parts of each standard bench are also painted in light tones, tying the platform art with the wall art and continuing the color theme throughout the station. Within the glass windscreens, Dowell delivered outlines of Charlotte zone inhabitants in dark, pink, and orange. Her dark and white metal cladding on the canopy columns proceeds Dowell`s recognizable theoretical designs determined from engineering and development.
