I covered a number of things in my City Talk column today in the SMN: Ships of the Sea to add garden, event space.
I’m obviously very excited about the potential of that new garden, event space, and music venue — covered, open air — at the Ships of Sea. I didn’t go into it in the column, but the Ships of the Sea is in the old Scarbrough House, designed by William Jay and sneaking up on its bicentennial. It was used in part of the 20th century as a school. When the Ships of the Sea took it over, they removed the extra floor that had been added. Some will remember that there was an old commercial building once owned by SCAD on the site where the new space will be. As I recall, SCAD planned to make some major renovations and extensions, but the Ships of the Sea supporters objected because the extension would have been looming over the garden in the back of the house. I was sorry to see that building be torn down eventually, but at least we’re seeing an exciting new development (and not another parking lot).
In the second blurb in today’s column, I talk about the proposed new policy for murals. You can find all sorts of interesting reference materials here on the MPC website, including case studies from other cities and the proposed text of the new policy. After a couple of quick reads, I’m a supporter of the proposal. You can also see the proposal from See Savannah Art Walls (SeeS.A.W.) here. The artists want to rotate murals on a single story building at Habersham and 34th (not far from my house). Here’s an image from the proposal of examples of murals we might see on that building:
Finally, I also mention in my column today that Marcus Kenney was commissioned by CNN to create a piece for their 9/11 Ripple project. Once you’re on the site, click “Statements” to get to Marcus’ piece.