Artwork Details
- Title
- Total Environment
- Artist
- Barbara Neijna (b. 1937)
- Year
- 1986
- Medium
- Painted aluminum sculpture, paving, landscaping, lighting
- Dimensions
- Plaza 180′ by 180′; maximum sculpture height 60′; pedestrian sidewalk 50′ x 300′
Artwork Description
When she was shown the blueprints for the Independence Place towers, artist Barbara Neijna conceived an artwork far more ambitious than the “central pedestal sculpture” that had originally been envisioned for the 1% Redevelopment Authority Percent for Art requirement.
For the plaza at the main entrance to the complex, she created a complete visual environment of sculpture, trees, flowers, ornamental paving, and lighting. The idea, she explained, was to relate the space both to the architecture of the city (specifically the Society Hill area) and to the park atmosphere of neighboring Washington Square. The sculpture would include “majestically scaled” forms as well as forms of a more human size.
The sculpture consists of two principal arrangements and a number of smaller elements. On a low platform in the plaza’s center stand a tall column of cylinders, a square wall, and an arch linked to a low curving wall with a column that supports a thin form reminiscent of a curved lamppost. At the condominium entrance rises the second major assemblage of shapes, including an arch over the doorway and columns supporting a drive-through portal. All of the elements are painted a stark, brilliant white, creating a unity from apparent diversity.
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
Owned by the property owner