Victoria councillors are interested in seeing steel from the old Johnson Street rail bridge put to creative use as public art rather than being scrapped.
“We’ve heard from artists, architects, sculptors and other members of the public that would like to have public art that utilizes pieces of the Blue Bridge steel. This is an incredible opportunity to memorialize a piece of our city’s history in a creative way,” said Coun. Jeremy Loveday.
City staff had recommended the steel be auctioned on a where is, as is basis, given it won’t be used in the public art designed as part of the new bridge project.
The steel is coated with old lead paint and disposing of it “as is” would limit the city’s liability, staff said.
Loveday said if the steel is put out to tender, it might just be bought by a scrap metal company that could outbid artists who don’t have much money.
At his suggestion, councillors instead asked that staff investigate the cost of remediating the steel and making it available for public-art projects. A rough estimate was $15,000.
Councillors supported Loveday’s motion calling for the steel to be used for public art and that the concept be taken to the city’s art in public places committee to explore the possibility of a design contest to creatively reuse the steel.
Loveday said it’s unfortunate the city doesn’t have “a site-specific sculpture” using the steel as part of the new bridge project and that there’s “a large body of the public which is interested in seeing a memorialization of the Johnson Street Bridge.”
Coun. Ben Iistt noted the cost of cleaning up the steel would be about 1/100th of one per cent of the cost of the bridge project.
“It’s worth it given that we’re already spending several hundred thousand of dollars on public art elsewhere in relation to the bridge for the creation of new art,” Isitt said.
He wondered whether small pieces of the steel, once remediated, might be made available for sale to the public as souvenirs to offset costs. Council didn’t support that idea, noting not that much steel is available.
Council has already approved installation of an interactive sculpture depicting orcas reimagined as 11 stylized surfboards for the new bridge’s public art component. The $250,000 sculpture is being created by city artist-in-residence Luke Ramsey in collaboration with city Indigenous artist-in-residence Lindsay Delaronde.
Coun. Geoff Young said Loveday’s motion should have come before the other art piece was approved.
“This was always the plan. We set aside pieces of the rail bridge in order to create an art installation that would occupy that bridge head site, or one of them and that would evoke and commemorate the old bridges,” Young said, adding that instead council approved the other piece.
Other councillors said there are lots of potential sites for public art created out of the steel, including Ship Point or the Northern Junk or Janion Plaza sites.
“People have a love for the old bridge and I think we need to be able to keep parts of it still in the city,” said Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe.
The city’s policy is that as much as one per cent of construction costs can be donated to public art, when any exceptional, significant civic projects are being built.
