Palm Avenue parking garage
Palm Ave parking garage part II
“The whole thing is an abomination and now you want to put lipstick on a pig?!!”
~Joe Barbetta~
As for the $25,000 the city will “piss away” to artists who will paint the inside of the garage? Well, people “don’t give a **** about murals.
Unlike Commissioner Barbetta, I do believe people care about murals and since the “abomination” has been open for over a year now I had to see for myself what lipstick on a pig looked like, so early one morning I parked on a side street (I’m cheap and refuse to pay to park) and headed over to the garage. It has art now so the proper terminology is “car park”.
As I walked the perimeter I thought, “this might be a nice place for some shops”. At this particular time the space below the garage sits vacant and the storefronts are being utilized as a billboard for the Asolo. I looked up and noticed a lone shoe had found its final resting place on top of the see-through overhangs. A vision of grungy sneakers tossed over electrical wires flashed in my mind. Sorry to say, the garage has not reached its full potential.
As far as the murals, I had no idea what to expect and as I turned to go up a flight of stairs I was startled until I realized it was on of the murals. The first level is a tribute to dance with artwork by Eduardo Kobra. This is the image that startled me and this lonely ballerina is my favorite. Her soft form plays well off the cold cement and aluminum. So simple but I can’t stop looking at her.
“The problem with the mall garage is that everything looks the same. They try to differentiate between levels. They put up different colors, different numbers, different letters. What they need to do is name the levels, like, ‘Your mother’s a whore.’
You would remember that.”
~Jerry Seinfeld~
We haven’t gone as far as Jerry would have us but we do have color. Color done by some wonderful artists who participated in the 2011 Sarasota Chalk Festival. On the first level you will see…
Dance: Artist Eduardo Kobra.
2nd level: Movie: Artist MTO.
3rd level: Music: Artist Chor Boogie.
4th level: Opera: Artist Monica Spain & Marco Bell.
5th level: Theatre: ArtistSkip Dryda.
Is the inside of a parking garage an appropriate space for public art? I like it but you should take the time to see for yourself.
Palm Avenue parking garage
The new Palm Avenue parking garage
Designed by Jonathan Parks Architects, built by Suffolk Construction, the expectations are high for this $12 million investment. Below the 743-space garage lies 12,000 square feet just waiting to be filled with restaurants and shops. If the Palm Ave garage isn’t enough to solve Sarasota’s parking conundrum, a second garage has been slated just a few blocks away! Foresight or frivolity? It’s your call. If the $600,000 sunshades aren’t enough to make a person want to park their car, bike or motorcycle in the garage, the $25,000 public art project will at least be worth a look.
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