From the San Fancisco Chronicle. "Berkeley Big People" will be unveiled at a public ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 18.Berkeley is immortalizing its greatest protests - from People's Park to disability rights to the tree-sitters' standoff at Memorial Stadium - in a towering sculpture of fist-waving demonstrators on a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over busy Interstate 80.
The artwork, titled "Berkeley Big People" and to be dedicated Saturday, is already stopping traffic. Visible from about a mile in either direction, the 30-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture is the largest and most expensive piece of public art ever commissioned in the city.
"It's monumental in scale, in money, in visibility," said Mary Ann Merker, the city's civic arts coordinator and the project manager. "It's our way of welcoming people to Berkeley. It's exquisitely done - but if some people don't like it, that's OK, too."
Caltrans officials are among those who have been less than thrilled with the project. The agency initially was concerned that the sculpture, standing over Aquatic Park, would distract drivers and might topple in the wind.
"Anything that would be a distraction for motorists, including protest signs, is not permitted," said Caltrans spokesman Ben DeLanty. "But this is now outside Caltrans' jurisdiction."
After more than two years of dueling engineering reports and dickering over the artwork's structural integrity, Berkeley moved the piece about 5 feet north, off Caltrans property.
The sculpture is on the eastern edge of the bridge near the University Avenue on-ramp, looming over one of the most-traveled stretches of freeway in the nation.
"Look at the audience, it's huge," said the artist, Scott Donahue of Emeryville, as he installed the piece this week. "I want people driving by to say, 'Hey, this is Berkeley.' But I also wanted motorists to feel jealous of the pedestrians and bicyclists who get to use this gorgeous bridge."
Next week Donahue will install another sculpture on the western side of the bridge depicting Berkeley's nature-loving side: dogs catching Frisbees, bird-watchers and kite-flyers.
The sculptures are designed to appear differently to those zooming by on the freeway at 65 mph, those stuck in traffic and those trekking by on foot or on their bikes. From a distance, the sculpture resembles either a bouquet of flowers or a Paul Bunyon-sized tennis player, passersby said this week.
"I think that's a tennis racket, isn't it?" said pedestrian Ralph Butler of San Jose as he gazed upon the enormous protest sign clutched by one of the figures in the sculpture. "It's nice, but in this economic climate, do we really need it?"
"Berkeley Big People" cost $196,000 and ran $83,000 over budget, largely because of the cost of the engineering reports and rising materials expenses incurred during the delays. The original commission, for $113,000, was part of the pedestrian bridge budget, and the City Council agreed to fund the cost overruns.
Close up, people can view a dozen or so scenes from Berkeley's past, such as: a People's Park protest complete with National Guard helicopters; bicyclists surrounding a car; Mario Savio leading the Free Speech Movement; a disabled person abandoning a wheelchair to crawl up the steps of City Hall; and a lone figure perched in a grove of trees.
It also pays homage to Berkeley's cultural contributions, with images of a vegetable garden, the Lower Sproul Plaza drumming circle, a double helix and a woman playing a violin.
But the most prominent theme is protest. That's not surprising, given Berkeley's tradition of social reform, said Lisa Rubens, historian at the Bancroft Library's Regional Oral History Project at UC Berkeley.
"Whether it's tree-sitters or the Marines, these are the kinds of things that have put Berkeley on the map for the past 40 years," she said. "A monumental piece of artwork like this is a way to give that history some legitimacy, to show it's not just episodic or hare-brained."
Donahue had artistic license to depict Berkeley any way he chose, Merker said. The only criteria was that the piece serve as a gateway to the city. The images were not vetted by City Hall, although the process underwent five years of public review by the civic arts commission and a 10-member selection committee.
Folks watching the project installed this week were mostly awestruck by the piece. Many of them stopped and stared as Donahue made some last-minute tweaks."It shows the spirit of the university," said Greg Davids, who lives on a boat at the nearby Berkeley marina. "It shows learning, music, protesters looking very victorious. It works for me."
Zach Mermel, visiting from Hawaii, said he liked it, too.
"It's a concise history of Berkeley, shown pictorially," he said. "I like the message."
Not everyone is so enamored of it. Larry Raines, a Berkeley architectural designer, said the artwork detracts from the simplicity of the bridge and the message - Berkeley's liberal tradition - is redundant.
"It's like putting a 'Live Green' sticker on a Prius," he said. "It's just not needed."
The artist, meanwhile, is thrilled with the feedback. Even the criticism.
"I love this area, that's really why I'm doing this project," he said. "To see this finally go up is deeply satisfying."
