Initiated by the Highlandtown Community Association, the Park Shine traffic calming installation and pavement mural beautifies and improves pedestrian safety at the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Ellwood Street, a major entrance to Patterson Park. Through a spectrum of vivid colors and embracing geometric shapes, the Park Shine design represents the diversity of Highlandtown residents and the warm energy radiating from Patterson Park into the surrounding blocks. An abstract sun anchoring the park entrance projects bold orange and yellow rays of inclusivity stretching into pedestrian safety bump outs saturated with swaths of bright blue, teal, purple, and red. Overall, the colors and shining rays create an integrated color wheel reflecting the vibrancy of Highlandtown.
The Park Shine design features colors and abstract imagery suggested by community members via our online drawing tool COLORoW and an in-person pop-up held during the Highlandtown Arts Walk on October 7, 2022. Graham Projects engineered the traffic calming bump outs and worked with Highlandtown Community Association to secure approval by Baltimore City Department of Transportation for the installation. The Graham Projects team installed the work in late August / early September, 2023. On September 2nd the Highlandtown Community Association brought together over fifty residents to help complete the public artwork during a community paint day. Together we painted the large sun on the sidewalk that now radiates across the intersection.
The Park Shine traffic calming art project was commissioned by the Highlandtown Community Association with support from a Public Art Across Maryland grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and a Community Safety Works grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.
Production Team: Graham Coreil-Allen, Melvin Jadulang, Mar Braxton, Kylee McDaniel, Zoe Roane-Hopkins, JaVon Townsend, Maurice McCrimmon, Nicole Buchholz, Lidia Milano, Katherine Klosek (HCA), Brian Sweeney (HCA), and Highlandtown residents
