FLOW

FLOW Cut Sheet

The new Broward County Courthouse campus was built to give the local court system much needed breathing room with a new 714,000-square-foot tower and ancillary buildings. Situated on a 1.5-acre lot, this tower needed to connect, via a public access breezeway, with a massive and impersonal parking garage. This breezeway is comprised of 9,000-square-feet of covered space and was selected as the site for a public art project by Margi Glavovic Nothard, titled FLOW. The installation is designed to run the full length of the breezeway at the base of the tower and parking structure. The idea behind the project was to turn a non-descript connecting passage into a dynamic procession, recalling the New River, the only river to run from the Everglades to the Atlantic Ocean, entirely within Broward County. Nothard found the width of the New River to be almost identical to the width of this breezeway space, allowing to explore aspects of the river itself and translate some of those elements into a permanent, multimedia installation that would be experienced by hundreds, perhaps thousands, each day. This does not translate to art that sits on a pedestal, but rather work that engages the entire space, floors, walls, ceiling, concrete, glass, lights, and more. Nothard felt that creating public art that truly engages those who simply walk by it is an endeavor, but worth every effort as it enriches our cities and the experiences we have within them. The intent is to activate a pivotal, urban space with lighting that interacts with the movement of passersby. In addition, raised, nature-inspired forms, designed to double as seating, create not just a walk-through afterthought, but as a visually compelling space that offers those who enter an ‘urban hub’ in which everyone pauses, reconnects, and re-exchanges with the environment and each other. Broad views beyond the space make certain those who pass through are aware of the city that surrounds them. Nothard’s goal was to visually connect this space and Broward’s own river to the Courthouse, the city and the community highlighting a walkway that, without the public art/urban intervention, one might just otherwise pass through.