Two new pieces of public art in Fort Worth have cleared a key design review, one of them an 11-foot armadillo balanced on the end of a seesaw at Gateway Park.
The Fort Worth Art Commission unanimously approved final designs for the armadillo and for a wall installation at Fire Station 26 in southwest Fort Worth at its September meeting, according to accounts by Fort Worth Report Documenters published Saturday.
The armadillo
Tucson artist Trevor O'Tool designed the sculpture for the east side of Gateway Park near the entrance to the disc golf course, a spot chosen because drivers and people on foot can see it. The piece is expected to weigh more than 2,000 pounds and includes a saddle where visitors can sit.
O'Tool told commissioners that engineering was central to the design and that he built several smaller prototypes to work out how the armadillo would balance on the long, flat plank.
At its lowest point the armadillo would sit about 3 feet off the ground, and it is being engineered to carry up to 4,500 pounds, Adam Neese of the city's public art management team told the Park and Recreation Advisory Board.
Neese said a structural engineer and a geotechnical engineer worked on the plans because the site is in a floodplain, and that while the city will not encourage climbing, the design assumes people will interact with it.
The project has a $534,500 budget from the city's 2018 bond program. The project is slated to return to the park board for approval and then go to the City Council for a final vote.
