ANN ARBOR, MI – If you don’t look carefully at the ground below, you might miss Ann Arbor’s latest public art.
City manhole covers are being gradually replaced with new ones featuring artsy, Tree Town-themed designs.
The first ones were installed in May and about two dozen are in place so far, said Robert Kellar, city spokesman.
Three different manhole art designs were chosen through a city contest last year.
“Horizon” by Laurie Borggreve of Edina, Minnesota, featuring trees, acorns and a skyline depiction, along with “City of Ann Arbor” and the city’s founding date, is the first design to be used, Kellar said.
The next one starting in late 2020 will be "Kayak" by Taylor Mentzer of Ann Arbor, featuring a kayaker on the Huron River, and then “Tower and Tree” by Shaun Whitehouse of Ann Arbor, featuring trees and the University of Michigan's Burton Memorial Tower, Kellar said.
The cast-iron covers are made by EJ, a Michigan company, and are being installed in conjunction with city road and utility projects.
City officials previously said the city generally purchases 75 to 150 manhole covers per year and there would be no extra cost per cover for using custom designs, though there might be a "setup charge" depending on how long the city commits to a design.
The cost charged by EJ to stamp a custom design is included in the overall $160 cost per cover and is not broken out separately, Kellar said, unable to cite a cost for the art.
City Council voted 10-1 in December 2016 to approve a $27,000 contract with the Ann Arbor Art Center, using money from the city’s stormwater fund, to manage the design-selection process for the manhole art initiative. Each of the three winners of the design contest received a $1,000 stipend from the city.
