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Project Name: Pleasanton Benches <br />Location: First Phase: Throughout downtown. Second Phase: City-wide <br />Summary Description: There are lovely and well-used benches along Main Street. They are high <br />quality multiples of two primary types: metal benches with backs that include elaborate ornamentation <br />of a botanical nature and cast concrete plank benches with a more constrained flourish, mostly sited on <br />street corners along with planters. At the Main Street Green, a unique, artist made bench provides <br />physical comfort and visual pleasure. This bench is a model for what could be a city-wide program of <br />artist-designed benches, placed in parks and along streets that attract pedestrians. Such a program <br />might commission only two benches a year, but the collection would grow and become a defining <br />aspect of Pleasanton's public art collection. Physical standards would be established that address <br />maintenance and universal design so that all concerns for access and durability are addressed. <br />Alternatively, the City could purchase "blanks" of ready-made, code-compliant and ADA-accessible <br />benches for artists to adapt. <br />The emphasis would be on the unique qualities of each bench, so that over time there would be a great <br />range of expression, material and approach. From humor to poetic narrative, from tiles and embossed <br />cement to new hybrid materials, (benches with sun shelter, benches with reading ledges, benches with <br />foot rests) the benches would be a laboratory for exploration and discovery. <br />21 <br />Type of Project: Artist-designed benches <br />