Client: Phoenix AZ Metro Light Rail

Location: Phoenix, AZ, United States

Completion date: 2014

Artwork budget: $250,000

Project Team

Engineering

KPFF

Valley Metro Light Rail project administrator

MB Finnerty

Metro

Computer modeling & working drawings

Curtis Pittman

Lighting Design

Biella Lighting Design

Metal Fabrication

Magnum Companies

Glass Fabrication

Glass Strategies

Overview

Country Club Station, Metro – Central Mesa Light Rail Extension, Mesa, AZ 2015
“Mesaflora” / Light Rail Station sculpture / 30′ x 10′ x 24′ /
Laminated glass, stainless steel, painted mild steel.

Goals

In keeping with the theme, New Growth/Old Roots, chosen by the City of Mesa for four new rail stations, the title "Mesaflora", suggests an enormous botanical specimen blooming at the core of the Country Club Road light rail station and marking the western entry into downtown Mesa. The blossoming of the City of Mesa itself is implicit in this metaphor.

Process

Ed Carpenter worked with Metro Light Rail staff and project design consultants on many technical issues associated with introducing a tall object into a narrow station platform where there are numerous potential at-grade and overhead conflicts. In addition, lighting, climbing, and safety were major concerns addressed in the process. Carpenter collaborated closely with steel and glass fabricators to create the work, and to install it within stringent constraints that come with working in the middle of a busy boulevard.