Airport plans $1.5 million piece of artwork for international terminal

By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The piece by artist and architect Amy Landesberg, called "Veneers," will be one of the large-scale art projects planned for the international terminal to open in 2012. It is described as "functional art" because it will be incorporated in a 1,000-foot wall along the tunnel between the new terminal and Concourse E, needed to divide passengers who have been cleared by U.S. authorities from those who haven't.

Panels of various colors will allow passengers "to more easily measure their progress down the hallway," according to airport officials, and lighting will project patterns and colors into the surrounding area.

The Atlanta City Council's Transportation Committee on Wednesday approved the expenditure. The resolution will go to the full council next week.

Council member C.T. Martin said the artwork, which is funded through passenger facility charges, comes "at no cost to the taxpayer."

The international terminal's $5 million art budget is part of a public art master plan that calls for setting aside 1 percent of certain monies including airport construction funds for art.

Other major airports also have multi-million dollar art programs for special projects or the airport generally, including Dallas/Fort Worth International and Phoenix Sky Harbor International, for example.

The hefty price tag for "Veneers" is partly due to the size of the project and the materials involved to produce the wall, said Hartsfield-Jackson deputy general manager Mario Diaz. "Every piece of steel has to be produced individually," Diaz said.

The budget for the piece includes more than $1 million for glass, light fixtures and fabrication of "lanterns" with stainless steel. Along with administrative and design costs and a contingency fund, $100,000 goes toward an artist fee.

Landesberg is an Atlanta-based public artist and architect whose projects include a large-scale installation on the exterior of the Fulton County Center for Health and Rehabilitation and "Power Wrap," an enclosure for an electrical sub-station owned by Georgia Tech and Georgia Power.

Construction work on the $1.3 billion terminal started in 2008 after repeated delays.