Following several weeks of planning, on September 12 the SRA team gathered alongside organizers of the Bay to Park Paseo for a special presentation to highlight the Bay to Park Paseo’s incoming butterfly art installation, a design by Safdie Rabines Architects.
Our team arrived early in the morning to speak under the cover of the World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024 Exchange Pavilion in Balboa Park. This presentation focused on the inspiration and technical details behind the butterfly’s design and its future as public art atop the Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge in Downtown San Diego.
This project began in April 2023, when SRA held an office-wide creative competition that challenged four SRA teams to develop compelling concepts for this art installation. Each team showcased their innovative ideas for an exceptional pedestrian experience, with overarching design goals including (1) enhancing the Bay to Park Paseo experience (2) tying the artwork to San Diego, and (3) exemplifying San Diego’s outdoor ethos. Additionally, we aimed to create art that would promote the wellbeing of cross-border ecosystems (natural and human-made) and give a sense of connection to all people.
This competition led to a design representing the Hermes Copper butterfly, a species native to San Diego and northwest Baja California – and thus, strongly connected to our border region and the natural environment. The Hermes Copper butterfly has lost significant viability in the past 50 years due to wildfire, drought, and climate change. It was proposed for listing as a threatened species in January 2020. We highlight this at-risk species to symbolize the delicate relationship between natural and built environments, and cross-border connections.
The butterfly’s image is made up of mesh tabs with a “paint by numbers” system that involves each tab being assigned a number that correlates with one of five colors. Each oscillating tab will be fixed to the bridge’s stainless steel mesh cabling in such a way that the tabs will mimic the Hermes Copper butterfly. The design team coordinated with engineers to review materials for a full-scale mock-up of one panel of the installation. Three iterations of the mock-up were worked through by design and fabrication teams, which involved continual refinement and attention to technical constraints.
Once installed, this 45’x75’ butterfly design will “flutter” in the wind at its location atop an icon bridge that serves as a gateway to Downtown San Diego.
Learn more about Bay to Park Paseo here.
