Client: STEPS Public Art and the City of Brampton
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Completion date: 2021
Project Team
Pam Lostracco
Lostracco Design
STEPS Public Art
Overview
The mural is designed to integrate with the fire hall’s architecture and the agricultural landscape around it. An open countryside appears to show through the windows, celebrating the local wildlife and geography. Horizontal gradients of colour create a soft, blurred illusion of movement when you drive by, with various colour representations (blue for sky and tributaries, green for tree lines and produce, yellow for cornfields and farmland, and red-browns symbolizing fertile earth and the station’s brick exterior). In the centre is a glowing warm sun, which is also a cross-section of a corn cob, and a blossom for the City of Flowers.
Goals
“This project is extra special to me since Brampton is my hometown where I lived on the border between city and countryside. When the Division Chief of Fire described the deer that play in the cornfields behind the station, I knew the window design had to integrate with the natural life and open landscape that staff view from those very windows.” – Pam Lostracco
Process
I was selected as the artist through STEPS Public Art who facilitated the project with the City of Brampton. I created scaled, digital files and sent them to a printer to print the mural on perforated vinyl and install it onto the station's windows.
The bold and colourful mural was designed to depict the open countryside and celebrate local wildlife and the agricultural heritage of the area. It was installed at Brampton Fire and Emergency Services (BFES) Station 211. This is an important initiative by STEPS that seeks to create placemaking opportunities around the city.
Additional Information
“This project with Brampton Fire and Emergency Services, our Cultural Services team and STEPS perfectly illustrates what great collaboration can bring to the community. These murals will connect our fire stations to their surroundings as spaces of safety, relationship building and creativity, contributing to our vibrant community.” – David Barrick, Chief Administrative Officer, City of Brampton