Vliet street commons

The 56 block clubs and Vliet Street Business Incentive District needed a public neighborhood gathering place but had only an odd shaped barren plot. Inspired by the swing of a baseball bat, this triangular pocket park was designed to nestle among 5 city ball fields. A sculptural community table is the focal point framed by a curved promenade/arbor that also serves as a performance stage or armature for other artists' work. As a site-specific work, different levels of performance are both implied and layered: the unconscious shifting positions of people at the table or ambling along the promenade; the intentional staging of music, plays, or other artists’ installations under the arbor; and the ever-present dramatics of a baseball game in the background. The arbor frames specific views of the pitcher's mound or home plate and Brewer’s Stadium in the distance.

VLIET STREET COMMONS  stainless steel, concrete, galvanized steel fencing poles, landscaping – pocket park
at 50th and Vliet Street, Washington Heights, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 25’ x 160’ x 260’    2000-02