The San Diego International Airport will officially open its brand-new, $316 million rental car center next week, and with it will come lots of creative, new artwork meant to be enjoyed by the public.
On Tuesday, airport officials revealed three new masterpieces displayed at the rental car facility, including sculptural works dubbed “Hive” and “Swarm.”
"Swarm," created by Atlanta-based artist, Amy Landesberg, features 801 tail lights from Hyundais. The piece is supposed to evoke the image of a busy cloud of insects swarming across a space, drawing a parallel to the industrial nature of the building in which the artwork is housed.
Meanwhile, "Hive," also by Landesberg, resembles the hive of a bee colony and was created 2,200 rearview mirrors from Ford F150 trucks. That piece of art has reflective surfaces and will look quite interesting at night, airport officials said.
Finally, two kinetic sculptural forms called the “MetroGnome” are also now on display at the airport's rental car center. Those sculptures measure 54 feet tall and were created by Los Angeles-based artist, Christian Moeller.
Last month, Moeller and his team assembled the art installation on site, locating the work within one of the exterior bioswale areas of the rental car facility.
The new rental car center, which opens on Jan. 20, will house most of the rental car companies that serve the airport in a single building. The project is designed to dramatically reduce the number of shuttle buses circulating the airport and improve traffic in the area.
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At four levels -- or 66 feet high -- the top of the center offers rooftop views of the surrounding area including the San Deigo Bay, downtown San Diego and the runway at Lindbergh Field. The facility, spanning two million square feet, has the capacity to accommodate up to 5,400 rental cars from both national and independent companies.
