Though the calendar has turned to autumn, pedestrians and drivers entering or passing by Tysons Corner Center on Route 123 will now encounter flowers year-round.
Blooms are the centerpiece of a new mural painted on the pillars that support the pedestrian bridge connecting the mall’s plaza to the Tysons Metro station over Tysons Blvd.
Titled “Pillars in Bloom,” the piece by North Carolina-based artist Taylor White was formally unveiled with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 12. The event included a question-and-answer session with White and a walking tour led by Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik.
The work was a collaboration between the Tysons Community Alliance (TCA), Tysons Corner Center and Art Whino, an art gallery with locations in Maryland and Arlington.
“By actively investing in projects like Pillars in Bloom, we’re creating experiences that capture the imagination of millions of people … each year and helping make the case for creative placemaking as a driver of community engagement and economic vitality,” TCA CEO Katie Cristol said in a press release.
According to the TCA, a nonprofit community improvement organization, the mural is part of its efforts to beautify Tysons and create a stronger sense of place.
The organization previously cleaned up the landscaping in one loop of the Route 123 and Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) interchange, worked with Fairfax County to add wayfinding signs and enlisted an artist to potentially decorate a Dulles Toll Road bridge over Route 123 that’s slated for replacement.
Adding a pop of color to what were bare concrete pillars, White’s mural is expected to be encountered by 7.4 million different individuals a year or more than 20,000 every day based on data that the TCA obtains from Placer.ai, which provides software to track foot traffic.
White said the goal of her design was to bring life to a purely functional structure.
“The artwork imposes itself upon [the pillars] like wild growth through broken stone,” she said in the release. “My art claims your attention. It reminds you that the world is beautiful and that there are things worth stopping for, if even for a moment.”
For Tysons Corner Center owner and developer Macerich, “Pillars in Bloom” represents its latest partnership with the arts community.
The mall installed murals along bridges to some of its parking garages last year, and it regularly hosts temporary exhibits, first in collaboration with ArtsFairfax and, more recently, as part of a Collection initiative with the Boston-based arts consulting organization Turning Arts.
“It is the retailers that make Tysons Corner Center a shopping destination, but it is the arts that make it a community,” Jesse Benites, director of property management for the mall, said. “Several years ago, we committed to enhancing our exterior spaces and partnering with community organizations to bring art onto this campus, and this project achieves both.”
