Politics & Government

Gimme Shelter: Creve Coeur Hears From Artists About Bus Project

Planning and Zoning Commission members could make a final decision next month.

Many of us are probably thinking about our next destination when we visit a bus stop, but artists competing for a city project to design a bus shelter for Olive Boulevard told city leaders Monday they had something else in mind for the space in front of and .

The artists offered up proposals for the bus shelter, which would double as public art, in hopes their designs will kindle memories and experiences inside and out.

The finalists, selected from a pool of , brought differing results from the same inspiration, the legend behind Creve Coeur.

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Marc Fornes & Volkan Alkanoglu's design, entitled "Red Riding Hood" uses an aerial photo of Creve Coeur Lake to inspire the shape of the shelter, which would be built with a mix of concrete and aluminum. Fornes and Alkanoglu are Brooklyn and Los Angeles-based artists, but Fornes has been a visiting lecturer at Washington University and pitched the idea of having students there involved with multiple phases of the Creve Coeur project. The pair have placed artwork around the world, in Paris, New York City, and on a roughly similar scale to Creve Coeur, have just won a project to design a transit shelter in Redondo Beach, California.

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The other finalist in the competition, Christopher Fennell, would use recycled school bus materials to form a vision of buses heading in split directions, evoking memories of childhood when "you thought of your play- ground breakup and your lost love on the bus ride home and thought like your heart was splitting in two," according to Fennell's materials on file with the city.

Fennell also has experience with bus shelters, including a design for a bus shelter in Athens, Georgia. His work has been placed around the country. His work claimed the People's Choice Award at the Foundation Art Center in St. Charles in 2006, according to his biography.

The designs themselves aren't final. For instance, Fennell mentioned that his work could also use plexiglass if necessary to shield waiting bus passengers, while Fornes and Alkanoglu have presented several different color schemes despite the name of their project.

"We're looking forward to the feedback that we will get from the community. Hopefully we'll be able to realize this project," Alkanoglu said. "We're certainly excited about it and looking forward to get Creve Coeur this beautiful structure."

Fennell offered praise for his competitors and the city planners who chose diverse finalists.

"You want people to see something and get excited. To sit there, and imagine they're somewhere else. They're in this fantasy," he said.

The City Planning and Zoning Commission hopes to make a decision on one of the $27,000 proposals at the next meeting in July. Both presentations were well received by commission members and city staff, and afterward, there was casual conversation wondering aloud if a corporate sponsor in the city might step forward and fund whichever project is not selected for the city project.

An official quorum was not present at Monday's meeting, so no official business relating to site or zoning plans, including a project that would potentially bring a bank and a restaurant to a rezoned area off Olive Blvd. on the west side of the city, was conducted.


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