Client: Downtown Ottumwa Iowa Legacy Foundation

Overview

We turn the knob without hesitation, water, our automatic life force, passes by unseen through little moments of our daily lives, a seemingly mundane interaction with domestic plumbing. This work is a playful exaggeration of plumbing fixture’s inherent sculptural qualities. The fixtures act as a vehicle for transporting the roof line water through the sculptural faucet and into the drain pipe / vessel, and continues downward to provide water for green plantings on-grade.

Goals

The renovation of Ottumwa Iowa's Canteen Alley transformed a non-descript downtown back alley into a pedestrian walkway. The landscape architecture firm Genus, selected 2 artists to integrate public sculpture that would transport rainwater from the roofline to garden spaces below.

Process

The collaboration was a coordinated effort between Genus Landscape architects, Des Moines Iowa, Mueller Studio, Lutsen MN, and the Downtown Ottumwa Legacy Group, to transform the alley into a pedestrian pathway and gathering place

Additional Information

The launching pad for the sculptural plumbing forms stemmed from reclaiming decommissioned ventilation pipe tubing out of 1930s Textile Mill