The Tower Center at Unity Square interactive water feature “Native Color” should be complete by late March or early April, Project Coordinator and City Water Utilities Director Terry Lauritsen said this week. The project is the final phase of planned additions to the voter-approved park, located at Sixth Street and Dewey Avenue.
The artistic feature will be located at the south end of the stage area, where work is underway to ready the site for installation including paving, landscaping and the construction of a “gentle splash pad,” which will facilitate the water component of the feature.
“We’re getting ready to pave the south end of the stage area and install some lights as well as construct the splash pad component of the feature,” Lauritsen said. “There will also be some landscaping with boulders and such to complement the area.”
“Native Color” consists of nine 11-foot-tall stainless steel flowers with stained glass petals, representing the Oklahoma state wildflower Indian Blanket, attended by honey bees — “a nod to nature, community workers and producers,” the Unity Square Management Committee said last year. The feature was designed by Kansas City, Mo., artist Amie Jacobsen, who won a contest undertaken to decide the final project design.
Lauritsen said construction to ready the site should take about 30 days, followed by the art installation.
“The project overall should be complete and open to the public in about two months, assuming we have decent weather conditions between now and then,” he said.
The interactive water feature was approved by the City Council in November 2019 with plans to utilize leftover funds from another voter-approved project, the Johnstone Pavilion Splash Pad, in addition to other park project savings. The contract for both projects was awarded by the council to Magnum Construction of Broken Arrow for $275,645 during a Jan. 4 meeting. Construction on the Johnstone Pavilion Splash pad is set to begin soon as well, with completion expected prior to the 2021 summer season, City Councilor and Park Board Liaison Jim Curd said recently.
illustrations courtesy of Bartlesville Community Center