Client: City of Key West

Overview

An oceanfront block in Key West, Florida, is transformed from a vehicle parking area into a pedestrian mall featuring five of Colin Selig’s sculptural benches.

Goals

The Southernmost House Hotel, a Victorian Mansion, partnered with The City of Key West to redevelop the 1400 block of Duvall Street, famous for being the southern most point in the US. Replacing nine diagonal parking spaces and a garbage bins is a small walking park which includes large curved planting beds, a set of concrete pads for a rotating sculpture exhibit, and five of Colin Selig’s sculptural benches. Together these elements are intended to enhance pedestrian's experience on the way to the oceanfront view and jetty.

Process

The park cost nearly $1 million to construct including a sizable drainage system due to its proximity to the ocean. For the public art component Liz Young, Public Art Administrator for the City of Key West’s Art in Public Places program worked closely with her Board, Mr. Halpern the hotelier and artist Colin Selig to select five bench designs for designated locations within the park. Coral-toned colors were chosen to match the setting.
The benches were fabricated in the artist's studio by repurposing large, regionally sourced scrap steel propane tanks, which were carefully dissected and reassembled without any additional re-shaping of the material, a process with a minimal carbon footprint which produces durable objects that contain 99% post-consumer reused content. All parts were seam welded together to form a very rigid structure with no flat surfaces or pockets for water to collect. All welds and edges were sanded smooth. The benches were coated in a super durable architectural grade powder coating.