Ephemeral Art This inquiry is about the concept of beauty and aesthetics as a component of LEED but we have no formulaic criteria for beauty and art. We are taking this opportunity to incorporate ephemeral art into our fire station and think this is an important element of a sustainable building. This form of art is dynamic, rather than static and changes with the seasons. Description of Final Design: "Karst Fire Circle" (working title) Our project site is a previously undeveloped and ungrazed "cedar break", or sloping wooded site. Water has eroded the exposed stone giving this limestone a beautiful honeycombed character or karst formation. Our intention is to coordinate with the contractor to carefully clear the site of these surface stones and stockpile them for use in a public art piece. We have interviewed local artists through Art in Public Places and will coordinate with the City of Austin Plant Rescue team as well as the plant rescue team from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Our selected artist is W. Gary Smith and his proposal follows: The project consists of a 30-foot diameter circle of karst limestone boulders placed side-by-side on edge, located within the stormwater detention area adjacent to the staff parking lot at the new Circle C EMS/Fire Station in southwest Austin, Texas. The limestone boulders will be salvaged from the site during clearing operations in preparation for construction of the building. The interior of the circle will be planted with a solid stand of bushy bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus), a native grass species, which will be rescued from other construction sites within the Edwards Aquifer region. Bushy bluestem turns orange in the winter, a color that is symbolically related to fire. The detention area surrounding the circle will be planted with a blend of moisture-loving native wildflowers and grasses (according to the specifications in the Circle C Fire/EMS Station construction documents by others), and in the winter these will provide a green background to the orange grasses. The stones and grasses will be installed by a licensed landscape contractor, with on-site direction by the artist. The limestone boulders will not require maintenance, since these are materials that originally were lying around on the property without maintenance for hundreds of years. Conventional construction practice is to clear rocks and use for fill. We propose to salvage both plants and rocks from construction, thereby giving them a higher use than fill. This ultimately preserves the beautiful character of these rocks and grasses and provides an interesting landscape element for the fire station and staff to gaze on from both their parking area and many occupied areas of the building. There is an important public education component to this artwork. It will demonstrate ecological/sustainable building practices through the use of salvaged stones and rescued plants. Also, bushy bluestem is native to moist soils, so there is also a public education message about selecting and using native species that are adapted to local soil conditions. Incorporating the plant rescue groups also includes a valuable portion of the ecological preservation community into this process. This sort of art can help people see everyday surroundings in a fresh way.