Downtown Planter Boxes May Become Art Installation Instead

The new planter boxes along the courthouse square in La Grange may become a public art installation.

At the La Grange City Council meeting on Monday night, March 11, Councilman Ken Taylor asked for an update on the planter boxes.

Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) partnered with the City to build the planter boxes as a way of discouraging pedestrians from jaywalking between the courthouse and the businesses along Travis St.

The agreement with Tx-DOT to build the planter boxes stipulated that the City would be responsible for caring for the landscaping. However, construction plans included no provision for irrigating the future landscape plants.

“We’ve been kicking around the idea of doing some public art in the planter box,” said La Grange City Manager Jack Thompson at Monday’s meeting. “It’s not irrigated. The heat generated by not only Mother Nature, but the traffic that goes by, will make it difficult to grow things in there. So we’re looking at getting with an artist to do some public art – spelling out ‘La Grange’ or something like that.”

Thompson said he is contacting other cities with public art installations to find out how they selected an artist.

Thompson said he will return to Council with some ideas at a future date.