For several years, Texas artist Bill Fitzgibbons has been working toward what he had hoped would be an engaging and colorful artistic display that would literally highlight the Murray Hill gateway under Roosevelt Boulevard at Edgewood Avenue.

Fitzgibbons’ grand vision of a performance of lights across the small corridor has dimmed somewhat since 2019 — largely due to the Florida Department of Transportation’s stringent rules for roadway decor — but the sculptural light artwork may soon come to fruition.

There will be no red, green or yellow in the color scheme. Those are traffic-light colors, so they’re a no-no. And rules about flashing lights are particular, and they cannot run along the ground. Plus, there are concerns about which events and celebrations can even be marked with a light display. The artist has created a single light program using blue and purple.

“With all these restraints, I came up with this program that I’ve since sent to the Florida Department of Transportation,” Fitzgibbons told an artwork committee tasked with reviewing his design this week. “The down lights that have to be static — I have alternating blue, purple, blue, purple, blue, purple. But they can’t move. They can’t change. And then the lights that are lighting the ceiling — I have them on a system where they’ll start off all one color, either all blue or all purple, and then one at a time, the lights will jump.”

He said that despite the rules, there is at least a bit of color changing.

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“I think it’s actually a very good light program,” said the artist, who attended the meeting remotely.

Next week, Fitzgibbons’ final design — called “Jacksonville Spectrum” — is expected to get a final review by the Art in Public Places Committee. But even if all goes to plan, the design could change yet again based on the transportation department’s final word.

Murray Hill input

The lighting work is one part of a much more expansive, $7.66 million roadway project that aimed to improve traffic flow in the area. Roundabouts were added at Edgewood Avenue South and Plymouth Street, just ahead of a railroad crossing and the underpass itself. State transportation officials have said the construction should improve traffic flow for drivers entering or exiting Roosevelt Boulevard at the southeastern end of the Edgewood Avenue business district.

Largely, that roadway project is complete. And District 7 Councilman Jimmy Peluso has been very ready to see the culmination of the artist’s work. In a phone interview Friday, Peluso said he feels the community will be pleased.

When the plan was first proposed, he said, it was expected that there would be a light show, a “cool artistic piece” and some beauty added to “a boring, concrete structure.”

“I think we’re still getting that,” Peluso said. “I think most people have been seeing the work getting done, and they expect something cool, and I think there will be something cool.”

More than 4 years in the making

The $50,000 project started out back in 2019, having been approved by City Council legislation. Costs include $45,000 for artist fees and materials and $5,000 for ongoing maintenance. Since that time, there was a pandemic, which delayed progress, and an amended project to include a mural went back to City Council to be approved again. It was.

Of the $45,000, $25,000 is going to muralist David Nackashi for the more traditional artwork at the location entitled “The Birds on 17.” That piece was completed in May.

Fast-forward to this week, and Fitzgibbons had a lot to share about how this project has progressed compared to others.

“The pandemic has made this the strangest public art project I have ever participated in,” Fitzgibbons told the art selection panel Monday. 

The artist gave his first presentation about the underpass design more than four years ago, and he entered into a contract to provide the light program. Then? Nothing. No emails, calls, communication of any kind about the project, he said.

“Years actually went by, and earlier this year, I got a call,” Fitzgibbons said. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’”

He expected to oversee the design, the purchase of lighting, the installation by a general contractor.

“None of that happened,” the artist said. “And I was shown a photograph of the lights already installed.”

His experience in Florida has been drastically different from that of his home state of Texas, where the transportation department gave him a much wider range of permissions. There, he was allowed to have about 12 different programs that are exchanged throughout the year.

“One of the biggest events is Fiesta,” Fitzgibbons said, talking about a project he oversaw in Texas. “Ten minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve, for 10 minutes there is a sparkle program to celebrate the beginning of the new year.”

That has not been the case here in Florida. But Kat Wright, director of public art for the nonprofit Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, said both the city and the Cultural Council remain eager to see Fitzgibbons’ purple and blue display finally be shared with the neighborhood. And, subject to any regulatory requirements that FDOT imposes, of course, “we should be good to go.”

In a phone interview Friday, Wright said she doesn’t fault the state transportation department. The rules are there for safety. Instead, she continues to look at this project as a pilot program. If it is the start of more similar projects across the state, she said, “that would be a huge win, I think.”

Here at the Murray Hill-Avondale gateway, Wright said the community could see something live by mid-October.

“We have a Microsoft Teams meeting on October 10, starting at eight o’clock, to do field testing for this particular program,” Wright said during the meeting. “It could be that it may need modifications for a minute or two because it’s FDOT… The lighting has always been particular in the sense that it could be construed as traffic signals.”

Peluso cautioned against such a “robust” target date. He said he hopes to see the project up and running by New Year’s Eve.

Still, no holiday light displays are set in stone quite yet.

“There’s going to be ongoing conversations with (the state transportation department) about what can and can’t get done,” Peluso said, adding that winter holidays, Thanksgiving, spring or other changes are all up in the air at this point.

“It’s going to be FDOT that runs the colors, not the artist himself,” the councilman said. “That might have been something that people weren’t expecting.”

The art selection panel unanimously gave its recommendation for approval, and the project now heads to the Art in Public Places Committee for a final vote Wednesday. Should the committee give its OK, team meetings to test the artwork could occur as soon as Thursday.

The Art in Public Places Committee will meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Jessie Ball duPont Center, 40 East Adams Street in Room 201 on the second floor.