Alderman Reilly is happy to announce than an iconic public art piece, Ginny Sykes’ Rora mosaic, has been fully restored and was reinstalled this week at Erie Terrace located at Erie Street and the Chicago River.
The tile glass mural was commissioned in 1998, as part of the construction of Erie Terrace, through the City of Chicago’s Percent for Art Program. Rora’s consists of three mosaic segments – two horizontal elements on the upper level reflect ecological and natural elements of the Chicago River. These flank the stairway leading to the lower level, where the circular centerpiece depicts an abstraction of industry and the City, with high-rises, bridges and other urban elements. The design also reflects the dual nature of the site.
In collaboration with the Chicago Department of Transportation, Department of Cultural Affairs, Wolff Clements and Associates, and Chicago Public Art Group, Rora at Erie Terrace received an Honor Award from the Illinois Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1999.
Shortly after the project was completed, the abutment started cracking, which created breaks in the mosaic and caused the tesserae to fall out. Repeated repairs were made, but the cracks continued to reopen. The mosaic was removed in 2011.
Rora has been repaired and mounted to a stable background. The mosaic now hangs like a painting secured to a wall and will no longer suffer any damage as the infrastructure continues to settle and shift.
