On Sept. 1, Ogden Arts, Culture and Events held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the unveiling of The Corner as a year-round information booth and store for Ogden.
“It was an old building that was closed almost all year, except for the Christmas village,” Lorie Buckley, the arts administrator, said.
Located at 2501 Washington Blvd, The Corner sits on the edge of the Nine Rails Creative District, which is the space between Grant Avenue and Madison Avenue, and 24th Street and 26th Street.
Renovation on The Corner was proposed by the Ogden Arts in 2018. In June 2019, the Ogden City Council approved the project for the public work of art. In 2020, the artist call was sent out for artists nationwide to apply for, with 189 submissions from different studios. In January 2021, the project fully began with Hou de Sousa being the chosen artist studio.
One of the goals for this project was to create a piece that could be enjoyed by both cars passing by and pedestrians walking around the area.
Joshua De Sousa and Nancy Hou, husband and wife artist duo and owners of Hou De Sousa, collaborated with Hogan & Associates Construction and Io LandArch to create the art piece that would be a part of the Corner Plaza.
Hou and De Sousa began drafting designs in their Manhattan-based studio where both artists decided placement for the openings and the seating.
High sloping was designed to work well with the sharper angles of the plaza and to be reminiscent of the mountaintops surrounding the city. De Sousa said the local architecture also inspired the balance between curves and angles in the piece.
After design and construction had finalized the design, Hou and De Sousa sent it off to Arup, an architectural firm which confirmed the plate thickness and anything else needed to make sure the piece was sound for production. After Arup made sure the design was up to code, it was sent off to Metal Arts Foundry in Lehi.
Metal Arts Foundry constructed each individual panel and assembled it in the shop while it was still bare metal to make sure everything lined up properly. Once everything fit properly, it was then disassembled, painted, re-assembled and shipped to Ogden where a crane was used to lift it over the trees and into the proper location.
Ogden residents and visitors of the community can now enjoy this piece of art for years to come.
