August 27, 2018
Photo courtesy/Center City District
Rendering of Pulse, of public art project that will convey real-time public transit information using columns of atomized dry mist.
The first phase of a long-awaited art installation in Dilworth Park that will spray colored mist inspired by SEPTA transportation will get rolling next month.
Curbed reported that on Sept. 12, four-foot columns of green mist will run through the park's fountain every time a SEPTA trolley runs underground. The installation has been in the works since Dilworth Park's renovation back in 2014, but a lack of funding has put it on hold for years.
Back in May, we reported that the William Penn Foundation gave the Center City District Foundation a $325,000 grant to complete the green line portion of Pulse, which was initially supposed be finished by July.
SEPTA uses green to identify its Center City trolley lines and two other colors for its subway and elevated services: blue for the Market-Frankford Line, which runs underground through Center City, and orange for the Broad Street Line. The blue and orange segments of the art installation are still waiting on funding.
Pulse is described as a "living x-ray of the city's circulatory system." Dilworth was selected as an homage to Philadelphia's first water pumping station at Centre Square and the steam that once billowed from trains at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station across the street, better known today as Suburban Station.
Sculptor Janet Echelman began work on the installation in 2010. Here's a video of the project so you can visualize it a bit better.
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