Public Art Adds Creativity to Billion-Dollar Terminal Project

Pittsburgh’s new billion-dollar airport terminal is a huge construction project, and it requires similarly expansive imaginations to weave artwork into its very DNA.

Enter Adam Kuby and Patrick Marold.

Kuby and Marold are the first two nationally renowned artists commissioned to create large-scale artwork for Pittsburgh International’s Terminal Modernization Program, a crucial component of the project right alongside foundational beams and poured concrete.

“From the beginning, we knew we needed dynamic artists to collaboratively create with our design team in support of the ‘nature, technology and community’ design vision,” said Rick Lee, TMP Implementation Manager. “Patrick and Adam’s immense talent and artistic sensibilities exemplify that vision, and I am extremely excited about the development of the remaining artwork to come.”

Kuby, who is based in Portland, Ore., first began detailing his ideas for the new terminal’s retaining walls for roads and bridges, as well as the facade for the multi-modal complex, in 2019.

The result, “Cross Currents,” is composed of patterns grooved right into the concrete used to build those structures, giving texture and visual touchpoints to what would otherwise be broad swaths of plain stone.

“I was trying to bring a sense of the region’s geography and geology and topography and hopefully sort of ground the roads and bridges into the landscape,” Kuby said. “Tie them a little more closely to the land that they’re actually occupying.”

Kuby’s art will be created using pre-cast concrete panels with 21 unique patterns scored into the surface. Both settings, the walls and the garage façade, will use the same grids, lines and pulses, although the wall patterns will be denser.

“The aesthetic that I tried to work with on the roads and bridges, the vocabulary I’m trying to use, has a kind of high-tech, digital flow of energy feel to it,” Kuby said, adding that he thinks the two settings will “speak” to each other when seen together.

A perspective that allows one to see both elements will then also include Marold’s “Open Columns” artwork, which will highlight the pedestrian walkways surrounding the multi-modal complex.

The series of four 20- to 40-foot-tall steel cylinders immediately evokes the smokestacks of Pittsburgh’s steelmaking heritage—a very intentional choice, Marold said.

“There’s this very rich history that newer industries are building on to redefine Pittsburgh. It’s a great city that way,” he said. “It’s not being wiped clean, it’s being built from within, and that’s really exciting and beautiful to see.”

Marold, who works out of Boulder, Colo., has designed the hollow columns so that they are large enough to enter. Once inside, a polished metal interior will catch the sunlight, presenting a stark contrast to the oxidized exterior.

“I hope there’s that surprise when [people] enter these columns and they see the reflective interior,” he said. “The way I’ve described it is the sky starts to dissolve into your peripheral vision.”

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