Gateway Transit Center
La Sombra del Arroyo, 1996
East Los Streetscapers, artist team
Well known Los Angeles muralists East Los Streetscapers have enhanced a seating area centrally located in the shady recessed area under the transit area's pedestrian bridges. Hand painted and glazed ceramic tile on the undersurfaces of the bridges provide the illusion of lacy tree branches overhead, while cast relief tiles feature a variety of native birds and animals which might once have inhabited this spot. Cast bronze "tree trunks" add to the illusion and bring the eye upwards to the riot of color above.
"La Sombra del Arroyo offers the commuter an opportunity to pause for a calming moment under the shade of an arboreal canopy alive with native fauna."