HASSO HERING

A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley

Flower sculpture update: Lights fixed, mostly

Written March 18th, 2021 by Hasso Hering

Here are two of the four wildflower sculptures with their petal lights on, as seen at dusk on Thursday.

You may recall the Feb. 23 story here about the colored LEDs on Albany’s downtown wildflower sculptures. The good news is that the lights have been fixed.

The bad news, if you can call it that in this Epoch of Bad News, is that only three of the four lights were working on Thursday night.

Last month, a reader of this site noticed that the lights, an integral feature of this $80,000 public art installation downtown, had failed to function for a couple of weeks, and she asked about it.

Tom Valentino of the city checked it out and found that a circuit board had failed because of moisture. A company named Frequency Productions shipped a $250 replacement last week. Now the part has been installed in the controller, and a waterproof cover has been added.

I went down there Thursday night to see. Turns out that the LEDs on three of the flower sculptures were working. The fourth was dark, as you can see:

Looking toward the Pacific Boulevard off-ramp on Thursday night.

It had rained a little during the day. Maybe more problems with something getting wet?

Perhaps it doesn’t matter all that much whether the lights are on or off. They are not very bright and change colors slowly. They don’t exactly shimmer or glitter. Even when they’re on, they don’t stand out among the street lights all around. (hh)





6 responses to “Flower sculpture update: Lights fixed, mostly”

  1. Sue says:

    Sorry but it sounds like a huge waste of money. I’ve seen them and was not impressed.

  2. thomas earl cordier says:

    The City Manager says he can’t run the City with just $xxxM but we still have people on payroll wasting their time working of this nonsense

  3. James Engel says:

    With these lights looking like this I’m wondering how the concrete river bank is going to turn out?? Maybe some of us citizens could get together & file a “Lemon Law” complaint against the artist!

    • Hasso Hering says:

      What “concrete riverbank”? Have you looked at the proposed designs?

      • James Engel says:

        With all due respect….Why re-invent the wheel? That’s a major expenditure of $$ for what? And it’s necessary for what? There is already a concrete path along the bank. We’re never gonna get rid of that “zit” of a R/R track. Aww geez, in these times. YES, I’ve looked at the proposed design plan & find them way over necessary! That CARA $$$ ought to be portioned back to the taxing districts it was skimmed off of. CARA ought to be outlawed as it was in California that found it far too taxing w/o a vote of the taxpayers. You want it, you contribute as in the Cumberland Church deal.

  4. centrist says:

    Beginning to understand the lack of public art in Albany. Too many grumpy Gusses oppose such frippery.
    Ahh well. The flowers are a whimsical display in an otherwise sterile location.
    Another whimsical display is at 1st and Lyon. A pleasant diversion from the visual cacophony along Pacific and 9th

 

 
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