With virtually unlimited design options and color palette, and the ability to form intricate and unique strip designs, terrazzo can be as visually impactful as it is practical. In recent years, new developments with cement pigments, epoxies and acrylics have continued to make terrazzo ever more cost-effective, high functioning and versatile. The spectrum of colors is now unlimited.<\/p>\n
With virtually unlimited design options and color palette, and the ability to form intricate and unique strip designs, terrazzo can be as visually impactful as it is practical. For example, hospitals can incorporate directional guides into flooring design to help guide patients, staff, and visitors to appropriate places within the facility. Children\u2019s hospitals can utilize terrazzo to feature bright colors and playful images that appeal to their young patients. Today\u2019s terrazzo is an environmentally friendly medium that provides optimum durability, design flexibility, and low maintenance.<\/p>\n
Terrazzo as a medium for art in public places turns a floor into a destination, where people go just to see it and walk on it.
\n~ Joan Henrik<\/p><\/blockquote>\nHenrik is the designer and hands-on construction team member for Winds & Currents, an award-winning terrazzo floor in the new Duluth, MN, Entertainment Convention Center. \u201cA floor can become a focal point in the building, like a sculpture you can walk on,\u201d said Henrik. \u201cTerrazzo as an art form is like a different kind of paintbrush.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist Linda Beaumont has been working with terrazzo on public art projects for over 10 years. \u201cTerrazzo is a fantastic medium for the built environment, and such a great match for artists working in civic spaces,\u201d Beaumont, of Seattle, explained. \u201cI turn the public space into my studio.\u201d<\/p>\n
For artist Teresa Cox, designer of Glacial Twist, another terrazzo floor in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, creating a memorable space is always the goal in designing public places. \u201cPublic art is a chance to recognize the value and power of spaces,\u201d she explained. Even in large spaces, the partnership of terrazzo and public art can create \u201can intimate, meaningful, beautiful and profound experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bringing together terrazzo with public art gives the artist the capacity to create spaces distinctive from \u201canytown-anywhere,\u201d she said, colored by local character and highly accessible to the public.<\/p>\n
Not Just for Floor Anymore:<\/h2>\n
Though terrazzo\u2019s reputation was built as a durable, low-maintenance, earth friendly flooring, its repertory as an artistic medium now extends to actual three-dimensional sculpture. Beached at the train tracks near the Pacific at Mukiltea Sounder Station in Renton, WA, are two 27-foot-long, solid concrete-core terrazzo earth canoes representing those of the area\u2019s native inhabitants. One of Beaumont\u2019s latest projects, the canoes are adorned with seashells, clear and colored glass, semiprecious stones and mother of pearl. Pictorial murals also join the list of recent award-winning Art in Public Places projects in terrazzo. In Detroit\u2019s Harmonie Park\/Paradise Valley, an outdoor installation of rustic terrazzo, designed by noted muralist Hubert Massey, pays homage to local musicians, historic buildings and public figures. The project also showcases the creative potential and durability of the medium.<\/p>\n
Designing with terrazzo is like painting a picture in stone.
\n~ Hubert Massey<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTales in Terrazzo<\/h2>\n
\u201cPaintings can be precious, but public art should meet people half way,\u201d stated Cox. \u201cThe advantage of terrazzo as an artistic medium is that it can be walked on and touched. It\u2019s meant to be physically experienced,\u201d she explained. \u201cIf it\u2019s a well-designed space, it impacts people,\u201d Cox added. \u201cPeople can reflect and slow down in a well-designed space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever form it takes, art set in terrazzo extends an invitation to the public to take pride in the stories, legends and symbols of the locale, its geography and peoples, as told by their artists and craftsmen. \u201cCreating terrazzo art is almost like using 21st century glyphs\u2014 objects or images that tell the stories,\u201d Massey noted. He likes knowing that in 100 or 300n years, the terrazzo and its even older natural aggregates will still be around telling the histories he has set down in stone. \u201cWhat better medium than something as organic as that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Massey\u2019s artistry in the terrazzo medium lends itself well to the storytelling function of public art. Along with his narrative of Detroit\u2019s history in his Harmonie Park\/Paradise Valley mural, the city\u2019s Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History also boasts a terrazzo floor designedby Massey. Entitled \u201cGenealogy\u201d and 72 feet in diameter, the floor recounts the African American experience throughout history. \u201cIf they tore down the building, they\u2019d save the floor, because it has a major function: to tell the history,\u201d Massey declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terrazzomasters.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}