Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Controversial Temescal Obelisk Put on Hold
Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 2:18 PM
The controversial Temescal obelisk that the Temescal Telegraph Business Improvement District (TTBID) and a local property owner were planning to install later this month has been halted — for now. In a meeting on Tuesday, the TTBID decided to postpone further work on the project, which called for a 20-foot blue obelisk with the neighborhood and city’s name to be placed at 52nd Street and Shattuck Avenue on a private lot.
The TTBID said that it plans to hold a community event in order to discuss the contested obelisk at a date yet to be determined.
“Maybe we made a mistake in that we didn’t do more community outreach if we had known this would be so controversial,” said TTBID Executive Director Darlene Drapkin.
Drapkin said the obelisk has only been postponed, not canceled outright. But Kim, who designed the structure, said she has removed herself from any involvement in the project following the community outrage. Kim also said that the renderings that were posted on the TTBID website were not accurate representations of how the obelisk would actually look. Kim said that the material that would have been used would have been an expanded mesh that would make the blue not as noticeable, and the typeface would have been changed to a “carnivalesque” layout.
“Frankly, I’m burnt out on this project, and will not be attending any future community meetings to further discuss this issue. I’m no longer a part of the BID, but have every hope that folks can come together to find a solution for moving forward on the project, regardless of what the design ends up being,” Kim said.“ I was disappointed and disheartened to see all the negative comments, and was deeply hurt by the harsh language. To my surprise, I also found myself feeling disrespected. I will get over it and move on, as we all will.”
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