Veterans Way and College

Tad Savinar / Portland, OR

This station is located on the south side of a regional Tempe landmark, A Mountain, and is near the Arizona State University football stadium. Tad Savinar, a Portland artist who also served as the lead artist for the METRO art program, believes that one of the defining features of a region is the ongoing relationship between inhabitants, the land and the things they’ve put on the land-the landmarks by which we navigate.

Scattered across the station are eighteen bronze sculptures atop nine stone-clad pedestals depicting local as well as regional iconic landmarks: Roosevelt Dam juxtaposed against the ancient Valley canal systems, Tempe City Hall, Tovrea Castle, and the Centerpoint rabbits, to name a few.

Each pedestal contains one or more Braille quotations from visually impaired residents relating their experiences at these landmarks – the smell of the books at Burton Barr, the sound of a bird in flight at the Grand Canyon, or what it feels like to stand on the stage of Grady Gammage and sing to a full house.