9th Street BMX Duncan Park Art Installation

The world-famous 9th Street BMX Trails are about to get their very own iconic art installation. Designed and fabricated by local artist Taylor Brown, the towering “9th” sculpture will be placed front and center of the park’s entrance in South Duncan Park to welcome riders of all ages.

Physical Description:

The large letterforms will be composed of an outer shell of rolled steel plate and reinforced with repurposed BMX frames, forks, handlebars and other parts that act as internal support for the structure. The bike parts are from the artist’s personal collection of cycling memorabilia of almost fifteen years. The installation will be anchored into the ground via a concrete foundation and color-matched to the green of Austin’s iconic 9th Street signage. A steel-reinforced, rebar base with supporting bolts will hold the sculpture in place.

SAFETY: The 6' high sculpture will have a plaque stating: "PLEASE NO CLIMBING" (in English and Spanish) and be surrounded by 12" deep mulch for safety concerns. Bike parts will be welded to avoid 4" entrapment guidelines.

Design Images, Dimensions and Renderings:

About the Artist:

Taylor Brown is an Artist and Designer based in Austin Texas. Currently a manager at Empire BMX, one of the world's largest specialized BMX mailorder companies, Taylor has been involved with the cycling industry over 14 years. He is also an accomplished BMX rider as well as avid motorcycle rider. Through his love of motorcycles he naturally gravitated to tig welding and structural engineering.

For the past 10 years Taylor's art has focused on detailed glass engravings with floral motifs and hand-lettered typography. Applied to decanters, glassware, plate glass and the like, his engraved artwork tends be at small scale, but very detailed. Shifting gears as well as scale in more recent years, Taylor's love of tig welding has challenged him to push his artwork to larger sizes.

Taylor has been riding and volunteering his time at the 9th Street BMX trails for close to two decades. His BMX roots and tenure at 9th Street make him the perfect person to bring this large-scale sculptural art piece to life.

Artistic Description:

The idea of the 9th sculpture came to Taylor after noticing how many people take pictures at Daniel Johnston's "Hi, How Are You?" mural off the drag/Guadalupe, the recently installed “ATX” sculpture outside of Whole Foods’ flagship store and especially the "LOVE" statue in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture is well known within the skateboard community, and Taylor wanted to give this same experience to the BMX community in Austin and beyond.

9th art sculpture cad

The placement and welding of the various metal bike parts within the rolled metal shapes is meant to symbolize the support of BMX within Austin’s cycling community.

Timeline:

Total estimated time to create and install: 12 weeks.
Project Documentation / Proposal: 75% complete (9/21/2018).
Project Approval by PARD and APF: pending completion our documentation/proposal. (2 months)
Sculpture creation: 10 Weeks (Estimated)
Sheet Metal bending of the large letters: 7-10 days
Local steel company Tube-Tec is contracted for the large rolling of the letterforms with steel plate metal. This process will only take 7–10 days from start to finish.
Internal BMX part welding: 30 days
The recycled bicycle parts will be laid into the outline and welded into place by Taylor Brown. Each bicycle frame will be placed in a random layout throughout the sculpture and other parts will fill in the white spaces around them. The estimated amount of BMX frames and parts will be around 70 in total.
Sculpture Base & Concrete foundation: 7 days
Depending on PARD’s installation abilities and resultant timeline, the concrete foundation is estimated at seven days. The soil excavation, wood framing, and rebar reinforcement will be overseen by Taylor in person.
Sculpture Installation: 2 days
Once the concrete is cured, the sculpture will be installed by a small hoist via anchor rods. These bolts are in exact positions where the metal bases meet the concrete foundation. There will be a total 16 anchor rods needed to properly mount the sculpture.
Painting: 3 days
Color-matched exterior green paint using an air compressor and paint gun will take 1–7 days. (If PARD requires that the sculpture be painted off-site, the process will be extended by a week or more.)

Project Materials & Labor:

Total Estimated Cost $9,500
Total Labor $2,100
Total Materials $7,215

Concrete Foundation $3,000
Welding $2,400
Steel Plate Rolling $1,975
Sculpture Delivery $1,100
Anchor Rods $930
Concrete $800
Welding Materials $570
Paint Materials $300
Argon (x 3) $270
Wood Forms $250
Skid Steer Dingo $225
Misc. Welding $200
Truck & Trailer $140
Hardware $130
Reinforced Steel $75
Auger Head Attachment $66
Fuel $40

Benefit to Duncan Park:

Giving one of Austin's public parks the recognition it has earned. This project runs deep with myself and many others in the BMX community. Many of us or our friends have grown up at 9th and have seen others grown up at the park. Creating a iconic object that people recognize. With recognition comes public knowledge of the park and what it is and means to people who use it or have seen it's location. The sculpture makes locals respect and have pride for the park. Validating the public park to many who are uninformed of the rich history that has taken place at 9th over the years. Having families make plans to travel to it's location from across town, near by city's, and other states. Casting the image of park pride, where the locals maintain this amazing park.