The Grapevine City Council voted April 7 to purchase a Kugel floating granite sphere and install it at the northeast corner of South Main Street and East Wall Street in front of Cotton Patch Café.
“The 100 block of South Main Street has been a challenge to get pedestrians to cross Wall Street and explore the shops and restaurants located there,” according to city meeting documents.
The city began to research ways to draw pedestrian traffic to this part of downtown, with this piece of public art posing a solution.
“The proposed interactive and unique feature of this floating sphere fountain will draw pedestrians across Wall Street and will allow for even the smallest child to move the granite ball, weighing almost two tons, on a microscopically thin layer of water,” according to meeting documents.
The granite sphere will be based so it naturally comes to rest over time with Grapevine facing forward, with the city being marked with a distinctive star.
Plumbing for the feature is located primarily inside the pedestal base, according to meeting documents. Water is carried to the site through irrigation for the planter bed.
The piece will go in the public right of way, but city documents mentioned that the adjoining property owner is in support of the project.
Funds for the project are available in the Public Art Fund, which the city receives by leasing space on its water towers for cell phone antennas. The city is estimating $25,000 for the art and $42,272 for the installation.
“This creates a better opportunity to move pedestrians into that block,” said Paul W. McCallum, executive director of the Grapevine Convention and Visitor Bureau.
