Part sculpture, part playground, Albany Loop creates an exuberant social anchor on a busy multi-modal pathway through a Bay Area community.
Albany, California is a hamlet on the idyllic eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay whose residents are known for a renegade spirit that dates back to 1908 when two women armed with shotguns protested trash-dumping by the neighboring City of Berkeley. Soon after this dramatic expression of independence, the community voted to incorporate and form the charming city we know today. 100 years later, the City of Albany released a call to create a work of public art "related to and in response to the local environment." In the spirit of Albany's founding, we knew we had to go big — even with a small budget. Our Solution? A "calypso blue" interactive sculpture called the Albany Loop.
The site for this sculpture is the Ohlone Greenway, a vibrant, multi-use, ecologically rich, linear park beneath the elevated tracks of the Bay Area Rapid Transit line. The Loop isn't so much a work of art as it is a "play" of art. It's a visually and spatially dynamic sculpture made from 12-inch diameter, high-strength steel pipe that invites visitors of all ages to hang, stretch, balance, lean, climb, lunge, hang out, take a nap, or anything else they can think of. The vibrant sculpture loops over and across the site to reshape the tract of green lawn into a playground for kids and adults alike. Its twists and turns spell out the word "ALBANY" in an audaciously graphical landmark visible from a passing car, bike, or even the railway above.
Groundworks Office founding partner Brennan Cox designed the concept for Albany Loop in a fit of creative exuberance inspired by his daily bike rides along the Greenway. We thoughtfully refined the scale of the sculpture and its components to balance interactivity with visibility, resulting in an iconic and memorable landmark. Albany Loop isn't just a sculpture and a playground; it’s a reinvention of the roadside billboards so often seen at the state and city lines. Here, the blue bending pipes create a quiet spectacle for the entire community—not just visitors— that, when it counts, shouts, “WELCOME TO ALBANY!”