Just back from a vacation.  Sorry if this response is belated.  Eric Siegel
wrote about a project in Phoenix (his email is copied below).  Though I share
his enthusiasm, I believe some of his details are incorrect.  The project is
The 27th Avenue Waste Management Facility in Phoenix.  The TWO artists who
worked on the project were Linnea Glatt and Michael Singer.   In January
1994, Ms. Glatt spoke at "Rising Above our Garbage", which was a three day
conference sponsored by the Exploratorium in San Francisco for which I was
Symposium Coordinator.  Ms. Glatt was present in person and Mr. Singer came
in via telephone.  Ronald Jensen, Director of Public Works, City of Phoenix,
added his thoughts (also in person). Throughout the talks, the architects and
engineers who worked on the project were neglected and almost dismissed,
which seemed suspect to me and even more so when I saw the building months
later (albeit, only from the outside, but still enough to recognize that at
least the engineers MUST have played a major role).   Linnea called the
collaboration with Michael an arranged marriage and a "clobberation".  The
project has been widely touted as a success and I believe in many ways it is
-- as well as a tremendous, positive example -- but the process seemed to
have been grueling and the positions of those involved, murky (pun intended).
 If "Fresh Kills" is merely being open to the public I'd bet it's a big deal
from both the process point of view and that of the visitor.  Simply opening
it up to the public may not be enough by way of either access, information,
or interpretation, but a visit to the 40-plus year old, three thousand acre
landfill site, listed in the Guiness Book of Records as the largest anywhere,
with height and volume challenging the greatest of the Great Egyptian
pyramids and the Great Wall of China as one of the largest man-made sites in
the world, and which may already be or soon become (I'm not sure which) the
tallest mountain on the Atlantic coast  -- would be eye-opening at least.

Mindy Lehrman Cameron
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Below is Eric Siegel' s email of March 29:

 The landfill "exhibit" that NYC is doing is a sad shadow of the
   fascinating Michael Singer waste processing plant in Phoenix.  Though
   I've not seen it, I was initially struck in around 1991 by the reports
   about the project, talking about how Michael, a conceptual artist and
   sculptor, was given control over a massive public works project.  He
   led the team that included the architect and engineers, and created
   one of the most popular tourist attractions in Phoenix (or so I read
   in a Times article in the early 90's) and a resource for environmental
   education.  All out of a solid waste processing plant, in which
   visitors can watch the entire process from catwalks.  Again, I've not
   been there, but it sounds like a wonderful project.

   NY is obviously copping some of the same ideas, but without investing
   in ways to make this accessible and engaging.  They are just
   apparently opening it to tourists and providing docents, or something.

   There was some discussion a while back about trying to do something
   like Michael's project with a major water filtration plant planned for
   New York.  But it got lost in the political shuffle.  Getting anything
   done in public works in this city is pretty tough.  Thought, they have
   finally started "WESTWAY" after twenty years of litigation.  It's now
   called, I think, the Hudson River Boulevard.

   Eric Siegel
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