HARVARD SQUARE DESIGN PROJECT
The overall goal of this first extensive infrastructure
project for Harvard Square since the Red Line subway extension
was completed in 1985 is to improved conditions for pedestrians,
bicyclists and vehicular traffic through improvements to plazas,
sidewalks, roadway, and lighting. The project artist, Jody
Pinto was commissioned to bring creativity and artistic vision
to this urban design effort, with the intention of making
the place itself the artwork rather than creating an art object
for the place. After initial research and a series of meetings
with community and business leaders, Pinto is focusing on
turning Palmer Street into a more attractive and dynamic part
of Harvard Square. Construction is expected to begin in 2004.
Internationally renowned for her creative integration of
art into urban landscapes, Pinto has completed close to forty
public art projects since 1975. She has received several awards,
including Design for Transportation Award from the National
Endowment for the Arts (1996), Federal Design Achievement
Award (1995), and two National Honor Awards from the American
Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA; 2002 and 1992). Her
work has been discussed in more than eighty catalogues and
books and over one hundred articles. Her drawings are in the
permanent collections of several major art museums, including
the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art
in New York City; the National Gallery of Art and the National
Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; Des Moines
Art Center in Iowa; the Denver Art Museum; and the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
Further information about the infrastructure project can
be found on the Cambridge Community Development Department's
web site: www.ci.cambridge.ma.us/~CDD/envirotrans/infraproj/harvardsq/index.html
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