Windbloom
Falon Mihalic
COMPLETION DATE
January 2023
LOCATION
Alief Neighborhood Center
11903 Bellaire Blvd.
Houston, Texas 77072
District F
CLIENT
City of Houston
SPONSORING DEPARTMENTS
Houston Public Library, Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Houston Health Department
PROJECT BUDGET
$262,633.00
Image Credit: All images courtesy of the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs; Photographer: Alex Barber; Video Production: Zainob+Matthew Create
Project Description
Windbloom is not just a sculpture but a community experience. Like an umbrella, this overhead sculpture is meant to be experienced up close from underneath as a colorful shading device or from a distance as a supersized flower map. Viewable from the Alief Neighborhood Center front porch, it is at the scale of the larger landscape and nestled within the butterfly garden. Inspired by the native site ecology as an open coastal prairie, Windbloom creates a colorful map of the site’s prevailing winds with “petals” of colorful resin.
Constructed of painted carbon steel, polycarbonate resin panels, and customized attachments, all sculpture components are envisioned as “plant-like”. A cast stone bench provides a place to sit and be immersed in the sculpture’s play of colored light as the sun shines through.
The community is invited to engage with the work through firsthand experience of the piece and the community engagement wind map diagrams housed in the public library. Windbloom gives form to the site’s ephemeral ecological qualities and fortifies the new community center as a place for reflection, connection, and discovery.
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HAA oversaw the artist selection, design, fabrication, and installation process for this artwork. Working diligently with sponsoring city departments, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and the selected artists, HAA created and publicized the opportunity, coordinated the panel process, managed artist communications, and monitored on-site installation. Recommendation reports were submitted at the conclusion of Artist Selection and Design phases, and a robust closeout report was provided upon project completion detailing project summary and ongoing maintenance requirements.
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The Alief Neighborhood Center combines three City of Houston departments under one roof creating a civic center at the heart of a redeveloped 38-acre active urban sports park. A new paradigm for providing City services, the 70,000 sf 3-story building is the first-of-its-kind, designed to leverage synergies between the Houston Health Department, Houston Parks and Recreation Department, and Houston Public Library for the benefit of local residents, with special focus on community engagement, identity, and overall wellbeing. The combined departments commissioned two permanent interior art works and one permanent exterior work for the new facility.
Video Production by Zinob+Matthew Create
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This project was funded through Houston’s Civic Art Ordinance, which requires 1.75% of the budget for eligible City-funded construction projects to be spent on integrating artwork and artists' ideas in public spaces and conserving the City of Houston’s Civic Art Collection. The Houston Arts Alliance administers the civic art program for the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
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ARTS REPRESENTATIVES
Xandra Eden, Executive Director, Diverseworks
Divya Murthy, Artist
COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVE
Gordon Greenleaf, Artist, Alief Community Member
SPONSORING DEPARTMENT REPRESENTATIVES
Lisa Johnson, Division Manager of Parks Projects, General Service Department
John Middleton, Assistant Director of Spaces and Communications, Houston Public Library
Valerie Bergeron, Assistant Director, Chief Administrative Officer, Houston Health Department
Artist Bio
Falon Mihalic is an interdisciplinary artist and landscape architect investigating the human connection to the natural environment. She makes paintings, sculptures, and interactive public art with a focus on how we perceive and interact with natural phenomena. Her projects include site-based installations, light art, and permanent public art commissions. Falon is a licensed landscape architect with a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a B.A. in Natural Sciences from New College of Florida. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and public spaces in Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Providence, and Boston. Falon is a native of the Florida panhandle with a deep knowledge of plants, climate, and ecosystems of the Gulf Coast region. Falon owns and directs Falon Land Studio LLC, a landscape architecture and public art firm.