Grand Hope Park

One more Marlo Bartels artwork: this one by the Renaissance Tower Apartments, downtown.

These pyramids sit in the courtyard of the Towers, which is on the southe end of Grand Hope Park. The addition of the art was part of an ongoing project funded by CRA/LA (Community Redevelopment Agency/Los Angeles) (I do not know the status of CRA/LA, since  funding for redevelopment agencies in general were cut by the state government months ago).

BUT--CRA/LA was responsible for many, many civic improvements all over our fair city, including these. In fact, my understanding is that CRA/LA actually owns the park property. These pyramids by Bartels date from 1994, and they were designed to cover the air vents in the sidewalk.

Bartels also created pillars (below left) at the same place, and some wall panels that match the colors of the pyramid bases.

I blogged about the Clock Tower at Grand Hope Park a few months ago, and that post has some of the park's history in it. Grand Hope Park is full of artwork; I could probably manage a few more posts out of it.

And danged if there's not a video of the place! The pyramids appear at about 1:20.This comes from a place called Hollywood Locations.com, and tells me that Grand Hope Park was used as a location for the Sandra Bullock movie, All About Steve

To finish off, here is a closeup of one side of one pyramid, to give you an idea of the intricacy of these designs.

While the other photos here came from PublicArtinLA, this last picture is from a flicker site and is attributed to JohnWilliamsPHD. There are 4 or 5 other shots at the site if you want to see more.