day 56: sky train terrazzo

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture Public Art Program hosted a tour of the Phoenix Airport’s Sky Train terrazzo floors and the glass murals by Prof. Dan Mayer of ASU, as well as the other artists involved. Advance Terrazzo of Phoenix also shared their contributions.

The exhibition, which continues through February 2015, features the design and construction of the following PHX Sky Train floors:

• Terminal 4 Station Platform, “Variable Order” – Daniel Mayer, a book and letterpress artist who works and teaches at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, created a terrazzo floor that features more than 1,000 letter forms and two large-scale, free-form handwritten phrases inspired by the wonder of travel. The floor is 480 feet long, ranges from 17 to 40 feet in width, and features richly detailed aggregate of stone, recycled crushed mirror, blue and clear glass, and abalone shell.
• East Economy Lot Station Platform, “Topo Magic” – Apache Junction painter Anne Coe designed the station floor. Coe based the wiggling shapes and fluid contours of her terrazzo design on the stylized depictions of Arizona rivers, canyons and landforms found in topographic maps. The floor is 450 feet long, ranges from 12 to 36 feet in width, and includes 11 distinct colors.
• 44th Street Station Platform, “Tailplane Patterns” – Phoenix painter Fausto Fernandez designed the terrazzo for the station platform. Known for paintings layered with colorful patterns and images inspired by the shapes of hand tools, Fernandez drew inspiration from airplane wings to create the floor’s rhythmic geometric pattern and sweeping bands of colors. He used 10 colors to create the design, and heightened the floor’s reflective qualities by adding aggregates of recycled, crushed glass and mirror. The floor is 440 feet long and ranges from 17 to 40 feet in width.
• 44th Street Pedestrian Bridge to Metro Light Rail, “Journey Through Nature” – Tucson painter Daniel Martin Diaz designed the terrazzo floor of the pedestrian bridge linking the Sky Train station to the 44th Street Light Rail platform. Known for his highly ornamental style of drawing and painting, Diaz combined floral and geometric patterns into a flowing design that leads passengers to an intricately detailed mandala at mid-bridge. Diaz added abalone shells, native desert stones and recycled glass to enrich the floor’s colors and textures. The floor is approximately 500 feet long and 40 feet wide.”

Phoenix.gov