Smash the Box

All 12 sites of my Ghost Rivers public art installation are now complete, including new sites in Wyman Park Dell! Ghost Rivers is a 1.5-mile long public art installation that maps a lost stream buried below the streets of Baltimore. With the completion of the remaining sites, visitors can now follow this permanent installation and self-guided walking tour that visualizes the lost path and landscape of the stream Sumwalt Run. When Baltimore built a new sewer system in the early 1900s, this creek was turned into a buried storm sewer, vanishing from the landscape and disappearing from memory. Sumwalt Run now flows hidden and forgotten through storm sewers beneath the Remington and Charles Village neighborhoods. You can catch echoes of its waters whispering from certain storm drains. Before Sumwalt Run’s ignoble turn as concrete culvert, it witnessed eras of Baltimore’s urban history. Its frozen waters appeared in ice boxes across the city, cut from the city’s first commercial ice pond and a later artificial ice factory. Trolley tracks crossed its ravine, bringing workers home from downtown factories. The Olmsted Brothers landscape architects attempted to preserve part of the stream as a greenway, but real estate developers filled its valley (using debris from the Great Baltimore Fire of 1905, according to local lore). Ghost Rivers bring these hidden histories back to the surface, offering a glimpse into past and future city landscapes. Check out these great new photos, including gorgeous aerial shots of the new sites in the Dell by Dave Cooper Much more info at ghostrivers.com + more pics on Public Mechanics instagram: https://lnkd.in/egGSCCZC —— Huge thanks again to Elemental Metalworks, Equus Striping, POWDER COAT FINISHES LLC, and Floyd Godsey II for their great work on the installations. And to Friends of Wyman Park Dell and Maryland State Arts Council for supporting this final round of Ghost Rivers installations, along with the many others who have made this project possible! —— #ghostrivers #publicart #environmentalart #placemaking #buriedstreams #undergroundrivers #hiddenhistory #baltimorehistory #baltimorecity #walkingtour #conceptualart #contemporaryart #stormwater #stormsewers #placemakingweek #loststreams #hiddenstreams #urbanstreams #buriedriver #sumwaltrun #artinstallation #urbanwatersheds #environmentalart #publicspace #baltimore

NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) 👇🏾