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Lakewood Arts Commission narrows designs for Ward’s Lake Park signal boxes, prioritizes student art for Silicon Boulevard
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Summary
The Lakewood Arts Commission reviewed final mock-ups for seven painted signal boxes at Ward’s Lake Park, announced an April 25 grand opening, and agreed to prioritize student artwork for six signal boxes along Silicon Boulevard while deferring adult submissions to a later session.
The Lakewood Arts Commission reviewed final mock-ups for seven painted signal boxes at Ward’s Lake Park and agreed to use student artwork for six signal boxes planned for Silicon Boulevard, the commission said at its meeting. The commission set a park grand opening for April 25 and directed staff to circulate event details.
Laurie Davenport, who led the design work, walked commissioners through the seven boxes and the technical constraints that shaped the artwork. She described Box 1 as the entrance-facing panel featuring a girl with cattails and sightlines toward the dog park, Boxes 2–3 as multi-sided and colorful compositions, and Boxes 4–7 as varied wraps and landscape-oriented panels tailored to each box’s shape and placement. "It's a gorgeous park, and the work that they've done on it is amazing," Davenport said while describing site visits and mock-ups.
Staff noted selection criteria included bright, high-contrast images that read at driving speed, minimal negative space, and themes tied to Lakewood history and community life (indigenous plants, student life, local events). Commissioners agreed to dedicate the Silicon Boulevard installation specifically to student work from local and regional programs (Pierce College and Wausau students) and to review adult-artist submissions at a separate meeting.
Commissioners debated design trade-offs as they reviewed finalists. Some members praised entries that explicitly reflected Lakewood (children at play, dogs and parks, local landmarks) and bright color palettes; others cautioned that highly abstract pieces or designs with large areas of negative space might not register safely at a fast-moving boulevard. A commissioner suggested adding a consistent identifying strip at the bottom of student-submission boxes (for example, "Student Art") and posting an online map or gallery so viewers can identify which works are student projects; staff said they would explore how to implement labeling and public-facing displays.
The commission also confirmed a park grand-opening event for Saturday, April 25, which organizers said will include family activities and a light-up bike component; a flyer will be circulated. Commissioners were advised that some box sides may require filler art because there are roughly 22 box faces to fill across six boxes on the boulevard, and staff will finalize which pieces wrap onto which faces.
The commission closed the design review with an operational decision to remove adult entries from this set of boxes and proceed with a final selection process for the student pieces; commissioners proposed collecting individual top-6 ballots after removing definite no-votes to produce an ordered list of finalists for production. The commission set follow-up work in March for the roundabout proposal and other public-art items.
Next steps: staff will collect commissioners’ final votes, confirm final piece-to-face assignments with the designer and print vendor, produce a public map/gallery of selected student pieces, and circulate the April 25 event flyer.
