Citing a big reception for giant interactive seesaws on the waterfront early this year, River City Co. plans to bring a second temporary art installation to the riverfront featuring large spinning tops.
Los Trompos 8 will offer eight colorful, spinning modules which users can physically operate, said Emily Mack, chief executive of the downtown Chattanooga nonprofit redevelopment group.
Plans are to locate Los Trompos on the Chattanooga Green at Riverfront Parkway and Chestnut Street for about a month in the spring 2023, she told the Chattanooga Downtown Redevelopment Corp., which endorsed the proposal.
Mack said that this past spring's interactive installation, called Impulse, was "a massive success."
"It was huge," she said. "Our residents absolutely loved it."
Mack said the installations are a product of the ONE Riverfront plan that included a call from local residents to bring more programming to downtown's waterfront.
She said the plan showed that locals "want a reason to go down there and stay."
City Councilman Darrin Ledford, who also serves on the redevelopment corporation panel, said it's important to invite Chattanoogans back to their riverfront.
"Thanks for thinking about us and not just tourists," he said at the meeting.
Dawn Hjelseth, River City's vice president of marketing and communication, said that while the tops are physically powered by users, they don't emit sound or light, unlike the seesaws.
She said the nonprofit still needs Public Art Commission approval and to sign a contract to bring Los Trompos 8 to the city from March 17 to April 16, 2023. The installation's owners are DTE Energy Beacon Park Foundation and The Downtown Detroit Partnership, Hjelseth said at the meeting.
According to the redevelopment corporation, the cost for installation rental and presentation is $47,133. Hjelseth said River City will pay that cost.
The ONE Riverfront planning process wrapped up last year and attracted feedback from more than 2,300 Chattanoogans to revitalize the waterfront, officials said then.
The plan, which offered the biggest proposed makeover to downtown's riverfront in nearly two decades, provided a bevy of proposals aimed at drawing more locals and daily use.
Attracting more affordable housing and businesses, reworking Broad Street into a better pedestrian corridor, enhancing public space and refreshing the Tennessee Riverwalk were among the ideas revealed in the new master plan that was nearly 18 months in the making.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.