San Jose seeks respect with psychedelic underpasses

[KamaAina]

http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2015/12/09/san-jose-seeks-respect-with-psychedelic-underpasses/

San Jose is adding a bit of splash to its downtown by turning two Highway 87 underpasses into dazzling artworks — complete with painted murals, LED lighting and sensors that allow passersby to interact with the exhibits.

The $600,000 underpass art is funded by a combination of grants and developer fees. It’s part of the city’s push to make downtown “look and feel like the capital of Silicon Valley,” said San Jose public arts director Jennifer Easton.

The artworks at the San Fernando Street and Santa Clara Street underpasses are expected to be lit up Friday in time for the holidays, Easton said.

If all goes well, don’t be surprised to start seeing psychedelic underpasses sprouting up all over the place — and not just in the South Bay’s capital.

Figures they wouldn't do the one on San Carlos St. that my light rail train uses.

[KamaAina]

1. Here’s why Caltrans finally came around on trippy $600,000 South Bay underpass project

http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2015/12/14/highway-87-underpass-art-caltrans/

There’s quite a back story to San Jose’s unveiling Friday of that dazzling display of painted murals, LED lighting and sensors at two Highway 87 underpasses near downtown.

As the city’s director of public arts, Jennifer Easton told us, San Jose has been itching for some time to be taken seriously as a cultural mecca and figured the $600,000 art project would draw attention and make San Jose “look and feel like the capital of Silicon Valley.”

Unlike San Francisco, she said, San Jose can’t rely on skyscrapers to beckon visitors. That’s because San Jose’s downtown sits in the flight path of Mineta International Airport to the north and therefore has strict height limits.

For safety reasons, however, Caltrans wasn’t exactly doing cartwheels over turning its steel and concrete roadways into something resembling 3D Kandinsky abstracts.