In preparation for the Grand Opening of the Downtown Mesa light rail extension, the City of Mesa commissioned me for this amazing project of taking a unused street side alley and transforming it into a usable space! This project, named the Downtown Mesa Lab, is also going to be used to solicit feedback from the public, to help determine future projects in Downtown (no pressure!). There were a few aspects of this project that were a bit of a challenge, but I think the end result is going to be pretty amazing! First challenge was to reuse some City materials, namely a few dozen concrete blocks! Each block weighs over 300 pounds, and they were pretty dated, so the hope was to update them into a more modern look and use! So a dozen of the blocks were delivered via crane into our driveway, and I got to painting! I pulled a fun color pallet of bright colors, which I attempted to pair with colors found in Downtown, or that would compliment them well. For years, Downtown was various shades of beige, so I was excited to have the opportunity to show off some fun colors! After painting the first round of blocks (there will be a phase 2 of this project due to time constraints), I constructed wood benches to go between some of the blocks, and painted a mural on wood of a child blowing bubbles. (this mural will be cut into 8 pieces in phase 2, and inset into another series of paint blocks which will be stacked into a tall wall-like structure). The blocks and benches were craned back in, and I painted a couple metal park benches to match. Next step was to paint bubbles down the park to add whimsy and color to the colonnades. For the parklette unveiling on August 22nd, we will have a bubble machine going and the wood mural will be on display in a temporary fashion until Phase 2 can be completed! Come out to the Grand Opening Night Market on August 22nd from 6-10pm, and enjoy this new space in Downtown. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out & I'm honored the City let me make this vision come to life!
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