Arlington to Cut Ribbon on New Penrose Square on Thursday

Public space features 'Echo' sculpture.

Arlington County will celebrate the completion of the first phase of the Penrose Square development at 4 p.m. Thursday in front of the new development at 2503 Columbia Pike. The public square features a two-piece sculpture by Richard Deutsch called "Echo," a tree-covered upper terrace with tables and chairs, an inner plaza with a water feature and small gardens. The $2 million project encompasses more than 17,000 square feet. The public art was inspired by the "Three Sisters" radio towers built by the Navy in 1913 and responsible for broadcasting the first trans-Atlantic radio signal two years later, according to a county news release. The Arlington County Board approved the project in October 2011 — along with $425,000 for the public art.

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Board Approves Apartment Building Across from Ballston Common Mall

The Crimson on Glebe will replace existing Goodyear building.

The Arlington County Board on Saturday unanimously approved plans to develop a six-story apartment building across the street from Ballston Common Mall. The Crimson on Glebe will replace the existing Goodyear building and an adjacent single-family home at the corner of North Glebe and North Carlin Springs roads. The building, at 650 N. Glebe Road, will be within walking distance to the Ballston Metro Station. The 139,000-square-foot structure will include 163 apartments and 2,200 square feet of ground-level retail space. Like most major projects in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, the county was able to leverage significant contributions from the developer for its Affordable Housing Investment Fund ($480,000), public art ($75,000) and …

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Arlington Arts Field Guide

Dark Star Park: Arlington's First Major Public Art Commission Endures

Shadows align at the park on Monday, Aug. 1.

Way back when Arlington was still a strange and seedy mix of banks, brothels and bars, and low-rent characters littered the banks of the Potomac, Arlington County embarked on an urban renewal project and hired land artist Nancy Holt for the county's first ever publicly commissioned art project. OK, so it was 1979, and Rosslyn was a bustling commercial district by that point, almost a century removed from the days of drunken Civil War veterans, gambling rings and prostitutes. But as the excesses of the 1980s approached, the area was still in desperate need of a cleanup. By the time construction on what eventually became Dark Star Park began in 1984, the small portion of reclaimed green space was a much needed remedy to a place quickly …

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HD: Public Art in Arlington - "Liquid Pixels"

Every once in a while we'll be looking at public artwork and gauging reaction on the street

This week we're looking at Liquid Pixels, by Ned Kahn. It's a piece of public art that's attached to the side of a federal building on the southeast corner of 19th and Lynn in Rosslyn. These are not professional art critics, just people walking through Rosslyn with opinions.

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Jacob Nelson

11:49 pm on Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Another nice video. Maybe I should invest in that camera after all.   more ›