Rochelle Glasgow, President of the Westside Neighborhood Association, initiated this project in January, 2014, to welcome visitors and celebrate the Westside neighborhood. The city of Missoula approved the development of a pocket park sign for the Westside neighborhood. The neighborhood council voted to hold a contest for a sign design and put out a call for entries on social media. The sign design had to feel loosely-related to the new way finding sign the city had just approved (drawing on left, below). The wayfinding signs established textures, materials and a color palette for the Westside sign.
Although my first and second sketches (middle and right, below) were approved, the cost to build them exceeded the city's budget. The designs were not feasible for local sign makers.
After contacting several local designers for recommendations of a fabricator, Mark Welander of Fabricon was invited to co-design and build the sign. We collaborated on a design that met the city's budget constraints and design parameters. Mark, our Westside neighborhood contact, Rochelle Glassman, and I found folks in the neighborhood who were willing to pour cement, create landscaping, and make art tiles to place on the base of the sign.
(left to right) sign design with build details and color palette, detail of fabric panel (to change each season) and sign, final artwork of sign
The finished sign at dedication, Nov. 6, 2015
