Work crews and cranes were working alongside Central Expressway this morning in the Cityplace area of Dallas. KERA’s Jerome Weeks reports it wasn’t for a new development – yet. They were installing public art projects.

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The morning after a panel discussion was held at the Latino Cultural Center about public art policies in Dallas, three new sculptures went up as signposts for a new, multi-use development being built near the West Village. The works will be entrance markers for three, 20-story buildings going up between Central Expressway and McKinney Avenue. The artworks were commissioned by the Cityplace Area TIF and were selected by an eight-member committee.

One work by artist Margo Sawyer from Elgin, Texas (Synchronicity of Color Receptors), will be colored acrylic cubes at the entrance to the trolley turntable that’s being built for the McKinney Avenue Trolley — where the trolley meets DART rail. Another artwork is Watertable, a 12-ton piece of rippled, polished black granite by internationally-known, Dallas stone sculptor and landscape artist Brad Goldberg (seen at far right in the photo outfront). It will be shiny with a thin layer of water running along its top and seeping down its sides.

The third sculpture is already the most noticeable. It’s a 40-foot-tall stainless steel column at the corner of Central and Blackburn (above — although press information describes the column as 35-feet tall, the artist explained its full height includes its base). Designed by Cliff Garten (right), who designed similar towers for downtown Fort Worth, the twisted pillar will have LED lights that can be programmed at night for different colors and patterns.

The sculpture stands kitty-corner across Central Expressway from the 43-floor Cityplace tower. That’s why the sculpture is called Tower II. Its cross-section is based on the outline of what would have been the second Cityplace tower. Southland Corporation originally planned a twin for the Cityplace tower, linked by a bridge over Central. The building would have stood near where the Tower II is currently installed.

Neal Sleeper, president of Cityplace, says stand-out urban art was always part of the plan for the area.

“We loved what Cliff did in terms of the height that he gets on his pieces and just how they change from nighttime and daytime. And that’s what we were looking for on this corner – something that would have visibility amongst all the light poles and light signals and everything around here. We definitely wanted an iconic piece, and I think this does the job.”