Do you ever find yourself driving somewhere and see something that’s likely been there forever but you’re just now noticing it?
This week I stumbled upon two hidden gems that are really in plain sight. A while back I enjoyed discovering the food, art gallery and free sculpture field that make up the Bluff View Arts District.
Just the other day I drove across Veterans Bridge and was stopped at the red light at 4th Street and Georgia Ave. As I waited for the light to change, I glanced over to the right and I noticed this wonderful fruit, herb, and vegetable garden.
What’s this?
The light turned green and off I went but I went back the next day to check it out.
It turns out that it is the Bluff View Art District’s fruit and herb garden. I asked around and looked up their website.
Dr. Charles Portera, founder of Bluff View Art District, started the garden in 1998. He decided to supply fresh herbs, seasonal vegetables, and year-round flowers to the restaurants at Bluff View and use the flowers for the guests lodging in the Bluff View Inn.
The garden is green and lush right now. Dr. Portera and his assistants tend the ground. According to their website many of the fruits, herbs and vegetables are provided to the Chefs at Tony’s Pasta Shop, Bluff View Bakery and Rembrandt’s Coffee House. The Chefs later return their food scraps back to the garden and use them for compost to re-nourish the soil.
In between the raised garden beds and greenhouse there are a few art pieces and sculptures, including one by artist Jim Collins called, “Herb,” a man sitting atop a high pole watching over the garden. Basil, rosemary, mint, blueberries, peppers, tomatoes, wildflowers and so much more. The garden, itself is a work of art with all the various colorful flowers and plants.
The second place I stumbled upon sits right next to the Food City store at Main Street and Broad Street. What was once an abandoned industrial site plagued with terrible storm water issues sits Main Terrain Art Park. The park was born from a desire by city officials to beautify the space.
Opening in 2013, the resulting park transformed 1.72 acres into an activity-rich public space, where art would be used for its visual effect and to encourage physical activity. This art park goes from Main Street to W 13th Street between Food City facing Broad Street and the apartment and office building facing Chestnut Street.
Lush green space, large iron sculptures, and outdoor fitness equipment. Mini rock-climbing walls for kids, a running/walking path, and trapeze rings. The steel sculptures look like sections of the city’s iconic Walnut Street Bridge. To incorporate physical activity, three of these sculptures are equipped with a wheel mounted on the base of the pylon that visitors can turn causing the massive bridge truss elements atop, to rotate and create new sculptural formations each time.
According to Public Art Archive, the park also functions as a stormwater management site, where accumulated stormwater is reused to supplement irrigation. Additionally, each year, 1.5 million gallons of water are saved from entering the city's sewer system by the on-site detention ponds.
Every time I discover something new like these two spots I am reminded of just how much the city has changed from its dirty industrial past to being the first National Park City in the United States.