Jacque Liu – Public Art Consultant

Permanent Public Artwork: Warren Holzman. Discovery Center Gates. 2018. Site: The Discovery Center, Philadelphia, PA. Project Budget: $80,000. Funded through Percent for Art.

Partners: Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, the Discovery Center, the Philadelphia Water Department, the Philadelphia Outward Bound School, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Audubon Society, East Park Leadership and Conservation Center

* More Images Below Text

This Discovery Center is a newly created environmental education center in Philadelphia. It sits on the East Park Reservoir, a decommissioned water basin of approximately 50 acres – 37.6 acres of lake and 12.4 acres of land. The overall site construction consisted of a 15,250 square foot building, a high ropes challenge course, and a lake trail.

During the 1990s, the East Park Reservoir site was closed-off from the public, leaving it largely undisturbed for many years. By virtue of its location along the Eastern Flyway (one of the major north-south bird migration paths in North America), and its unique natural setting, this unusual man-made wildlife habitat has become an important migrating bird and waterfowl nesting ground. Given this context, educational programming will focus on the site as a bird and wildlife sanctuary.

The local offices for Philadelphia Outward Bound and the National Audubon Society are located at the Discovery Center, where they facilitate nationally recognized environmental education and leadership programs. The majority of participants are Philadelphia public school students, with more than 25,000 visiting annually.

Warren Holzman’s Discovery Center Gates are decorative steel gates that welcome the public. Made of forged and fabricated weathering steel, it is visually comprised of a single repeating motif that alludes to common forms found in the East Park Reservoir, varying from native plants to resident and migratory bird species.

Mr. Holzman states, "The interlocking forms inspired by the reservoir transform singular units into a greater whole. This is a purposeful parallel to the collective effort of the organizations - the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Audubon Society, the Philadelphia Outward Bound School, and the City of Philadelphia - that worked to establish The Discovery Center."

I served as the Percent for Art Project Manager on this project.

Selected Press

- Hahn, Ashley. “Building for Discovery.” WHYY, September 28, 2018.

- Romero, Melissa. “Public artwork selected for Discovery Center in Fairmount Park.” Curbed Philadelphia, May 4, 2017.

- Cristi, A.A. “New Public Artwork By Warren Holzman Welcomes Public To The Discovery Center In Fairmount Park.” Broadway World, September 5, 2018.