Facilities Art

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Art on the North Davidson CATS bus facility North Davidson

Jimmy O’Neal, Wheels on the Bus in 7 Cymatic Sonatas

2011
Jimmy O’Neal’s art is a visual translation of sounds he recorded in CATS’ buses and bus facilities. Using a cymascope, he produced visuals based on the key and frequency of each distinct recorded sound. He identified a commercial 3M chrome film that would mimic the artist’s signature mirror paint. Once the artist digitally manipulated and increased the size of his images to fit the scale of each building façade, he provided CATS’ general contractor with vector files of the art, and a sub-contractor produced the art.

 

Landscape art at the South Tryon bus facility South Tryon Bus Facility

Alice Adams, R.M. Fischer, and Marek Ranis

2005
Surrounding the buildings is a collaborative landscape designed by Alice Adams to contrast with the straight lines of the brick buildings running parallel to South Tryon Street. The flowers, shrubs, and grass are planted in curving rows and provide color and texture.

A large red and white “art” clock sits on the brick gateway arches where buses arrive and depart from the facility. The hours are asymmetrically positioned on the red ellipse in white and time is conveyed by the position of the sweeping hands. In the center, behind the hands of the clock, is a reference to mechanical gear. The artist, R.M. Fischer, designed the clock in response to the building architecture and the function of the facility, honoring the hard work required by maintenance for bus operation.

Two tracks of glazed blue and orange brick travel along the standard red brick façades of the parking garage, bridge connector, administration and maintenance buildings, as well as the gateway entrance for buses. Inspired by CATS’ bus routes, this energetic, colorful brick pattern conveys a sense of motion as it distinguished the facility in a city with many brick buildings. Marek Ranis also created colorful ceramic wall art for the 2nd floor foyer entrance. 

Gateway arches art at the south tryon bus facility  Wall art based off the CATS bus routes

 

CATS bus driver operating a bus

 

South Tryon Bus Facility Photography Project

Byron Baldwin, Crista Cammaroto, Gary O’Brien, and Lee Stewart

2006
CATS opened its South Tryon Bus Facility in 2005 providing a new bus maintenance facility, a paint and body shop, a wash and fuel building, a parking garage, and surface parking for 250 buses. However, the walls inside this huge facility were unadorned. Alice Adams and Marek Ranis, the design team artists for the facility, early on proposed a photography project for the interior walls, referencing the main function of the facility.

CATS employee operating on machinery. Employee participation was a guiding principle in the development of a permanent photography collection for the bus maintenance facility. Over 100 responses to a staff survey indicated that bus operations employees overwhelmingly supported the inclusion of imagery that honors their profession. That survey steered the decisions of an employee art committee and determined the type of photography, theme, and content that would appear in the exhibit. Collaborating with professionals from The Light Factory, a local non-profit arts center dedicated to photography and film, the employee art committee reviewed twelve portfolios of local artists, ultimately selecting four Charlotte photographers to document the theme “honoring maintenance and bus operations work.”

 

 

 

Trolly with 9th street displayed on LED sign   CATS passengers posing outside of transit facilities

 

 

Construction of South Boulevard light rail.

 

South Boulevard Photography Exhibit

Photographs from contractors and staff document over two years of LYNX Blue Line Construction. With curator, Devlin McNeil, staff reviewed over 4,000 construction images and selected 140 photographs for permanent exhibition in the South Boulevard Light Rail Facility. The second floor highlights the maintenance facility and the light rail vehicles, while the third-floor chronicles light rail construction from 2005 - 2007.

 

 

Construction at the North Brevard light rail.

 

North Brevard Photography Exhibit

Photographs from contractors and staff document the five years of LYNX Blue Line Extension construction. With curator, Laurie Schorr, CATS staff reviewed over 3,000 construction images and selected 71 photographs for permanent exhibition in the North Brevard Light Rail Facility. The exhibition highlights the immense scale of the construction and the contributions of the project teams in the transformation of the Northeast Corridor. 

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