Image courtesy of The Wabash Lights
Ten months ago we told you about an interesting proposal to renovate, revitalize, and quite literally light up Wabash Avenue in The Loop. It’s called The Wabash Lights, and involves lining the underside of the L tracks on Wabash with hundreds of illuminated colored tubes.
Sure, it’s an art project, but it’s also a renovation project — trying to turn the slightly run-down commercial corridor into something better. Something more interesting.
A week ago, the project’s public relations firm sent us an e-mail to let us know that the men behind the idea, Jack Newell and Seth Unger, got permission from the CTA and a bunch of other TLA’s to build a small test version of the Wabash Lights. But they need $55,000 to do it.
We checked the couch cushions and only found 42 cents, a bunch of old Cheerio’s, and a remote control that doesn’t seem to belong to anything in the house. Fortunately, Newell and Unger weren’t counting on our largesse, and started a Kickstarter campaign trying to raise the money that way.
But instead of just telling you about it back in June, we thought we’d sit on the news for a while and see if anyone was really interested in the project. It turns out… maybe.
As of this writing, nine days after the Kickstarter campaign started, they’ve raised $17,557 from 291 people. That’s an average of $60 per person. Pretty good. Some people have actually donated more than $750 each!
So the Lights on Wabash beta test is 32% of the way to its goal. If you’re feeling generous, or artsy, or maybe you’d just like to see Wabash not suck, here’s the link to the Kickstarter campaign again. You know what to do.
Press release follows:
Cloud Gate, The Picasso and Crown Fountain are just three of more than 700 works of art exhibited throughout Chicago. Soon, The Wabash Lights will be added to the list.
Chicago designers Jack C. Newell and Seth Unger want to add to the diverse landscape that the city already offers and bring new light to Wabash Ave.
Backed by the Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Department of Transportation, and City Government, The Wabash Lights is an interactive light installation on the underside of the elevated train tracks on Wabash Avenue in the heart of Chicago’s Loop. Designed by the public, this first of its kind piece of public art will give visitors to The Wabash Lights’ website and future app the ability to log in and design the lights, making it entirely interactive.
The lighting sculpture will bring life and awareness to the largely neglected strip of Wabash Ave. Creating this new destination in the heart of the loop will increase annual visitors to Chicago, increase tourism, and encourage the growth of local business.
Today, Unger and Newell launched a month-long Kickstarter campaign to fund the beta test of the project. With a goal of raising $55,000, the donations will be used to troubleshoot design, interactivity, and test how vibration from the “L”, temperature changes, and the wear and tear of the city affect the hardware.
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from The Chicago Architecture Blog http://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/2015/07/06/want-a-better-wabash-avenue-put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is/
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