Light sculpture advances

CITY HALL — An interactive light sculpture could be coming to Central Avenue, under the public art proposal for the mixed-use development slated for the street’s intersection with California Avenue.

The city’s Arts & Culture Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council approve the art proposal for Legendary Tower Glendale, a proposed complex that includes 71 condominium units and nine ground-floor live-work units.

The artwork is mandatory under the Downtown Specific Plan, which requires a public art component valued at 1% of the cost of any project with a price tag of at least $500,000 in the downtown area. No required artwork has been completed under the new policy, although the commission reviewed another art proposal for a Hyatt Hotel slated for the corner of Central and Wilson avenues.

The ground floor of the proposed complex would feature a cafe connected to about 1,350 square feet of public space. The public area would be surrounded in panels of transparent glass, creating what the project’s architect, Mark Vaghei, described as “a sun-filled outdoor room.”

The public space will feature the proposed artwork, a light sculpture by internationally commissioned mixed-media artist Michael Hayden. The proposed work would feature dozens of hanging light sticks, which would create interactive displays featuring 2,500 colors.

“It’s going to be constantly changing,” Hayden said. “So the parade of these hanging lights is not what you’ll be struck with. What you are going to be struck with is the wave forms that pass through them.”

Commissioners said they were intrigued by the proposal, but expressed concern that its proximity to the cafe could make it seem unavailable to the general public.

“It could become almost a private space,” said Commissioner Teri Deaver.

They still chose to recommend the proposal, with the added caveat that the artists and architect work to make the artwork as exposed to the public as possible.

“My concern is that the public is going to feel somewhat distant from the building; however, I think I am willing to trust the artwork,” said Chairman Arman Keyvanian. “I love this kind of stuff.”

The property’s owner, Surjit Soni, said the public art piece is an important component of the project’s goal to begin a transformation of the downtown stretch of Central Avenue.

The project’s 27,400-square-foot lot was once home to an abandoned gas station, a vacant commercial building and a 20-unit, two-story residential building — all of which were recently demolished.

City officials have said Soni’s vision fits into the goals of the Downtown Specific Plan, which calls for mid-rise and fairly dense mixed-use structures along North Central Avenue to establish a residential base for the downtown business district.

“We see potential here,” Soni said. “We see Central as likely to grow into a vibrant, rich residential mixed-use community.”