Q: What happened to the large mobile that hung in the old airport terminal? I believe it was called “Phoenix Rising” or something similar. I seem to recall that it cost the huge (at that time) sum of $35,000. Why can’t it be installed somewhere at Hartsfield-Jackson, perhaps the new international terminal?
—Allen Potter, Smyrna
A: Simply put, that phoenix has flown the coop.
Nobody connected with Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport knows where the piece, which was commissioned in the 1960s, is located.
It’s thought the mobile was removed when the new terminal was built in the 1980s, an airport spokesman told Actual Factual Georgia.
Atlanta artist Julian Harris, who died in 1987, was commissioned to create the piece for the airport, according to Sunshine Skies, a collection of historical accounts about commuter and regional airlines in Georgia and Florida.
And your memory is perfect as for the cost.
For $35,000, Harris designed and built the phoenix mobile, which made its home in the old airport lobby.
The mythical bird is Atlanta’s symbol and is depicted on the city’s seal, because like the phoenix, Atlanta rose from the ashes of the Civil War.
A bronze sculpture in Woodruff Park called “Atlanta from the Ashes” shows a phoenix lifting a woman from the ashes.
Coincidentally, the airport began to collect art about the time its mobile went missing.
Hartsfield-Jackson has more than 250 pieces in several permanent collections displayed throughout the airport. The Airport Art Program also showcases rotating exhibits, thanks to “collaborations with artists, museums, galleries and private collectors,” the airport’s website states.
Now if the airport could only find its phoenix.
If you have information about the whereabouts of the phoenix mobile, let us know.
Q: What was the toll in financial damage and deaths from the bad storms and flooding that hit Georgia in 2009? I remember it being pretty bad.
A: Most of us won't forget the incessant rain and devastating floods that fall.
The rain began around Sept. 14 and rarely stopped throughout the couple of weeks, saturating the ground and causing the area’s many creeks and rivers to overflow.
Roads were impassable, interstates closed and bridges were washed away as the floodwater invaded homes, schools and businesses throughout the metro area.
At least nine people died in Georgia from the rain and floods, and there was an estimated $500 million in damage throughout the state.
The epic floods damaged more than 20,000 homes and structures.
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