Washington Street is basically the bomb.com. It’s home to many of everyone’s fan favorites, including Java House, Pancheros, Mesa, Jimmy Johns and so many more! And now it’s temporarily a home to a not-so-favorite: construction.
As many of you have probably already noticed, Washington Street has been on construction for a while now. From trying to drive to a shop downtown or just living on Washington Street (aka me) it can be quite annoying at times to detour around it. But lately, it’s become not too bad to look at.
The construction fences that are lined down Washington have miraculously turned colorful. Red, green, blue, orange, yellow, black. It looks like a rainbow down the strip; it’s really something. It’s the work of a new interactive public art project designed by local artist Thomas Agran through the city of Iowa City.
The interactive project involves giving the public the ability to tie vibrant ribbons along the construction fences by picking them out of the red buckets along the fence or stopping in any store or restaurant along the street to find them. There are already so many ribbons tied, but there is always room for more. The ribbons give the construction area a bit of an artsy look, making the city still look as beautiful as ever.
The project is just one of the many things that will be going on all summer long to help open up Washington Street. You can look into all the wonderful opportunities by going to Iowa City’s webpage or checking them out on Twitter and Facebook.
Construction is not convenient at all, but when it looks this pretty it’s not so bad. Iowa City, you never cease to amaze us!