This public art project demonstrates how art and landscape can be combined to enhance a neighborhood. It transformed an inactive well site (part of the city’s water distribution system) from a vacant lot into a safe and beautiful community space of walkways, sculpture, landscaping, and fences.

Artist Kevin Berry and landscape architect Janet Waibel designed the project with environmental benefits in mind. They designed porous hardscape materials, such as crushed stone and rock, and rain harvesting techniques to conserve water and decrease stormwater runoff. The shade trees will grow and help reduce the impact of urban heat. By attracting birds and pollinators, the project’s plantings also show how desert landscaping can restore nature to our neighborhoods and yards.

Kevin Berry’s sculpture, Watermark, a steel and glass “Water Column,” (13’ 4” high and 36” around) stands as the centerpiece of the site. Berry fabricated the sculpture out of steel plates and rods, and chunks of colored glass or marbles. In addition to the sculpture, Berry designed and fabricated 200 feet of steel and gabion perimeter fencing to improve security at the site, and a steel well cap to recognize the original purpose of Well Site 157. ​