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The new PiggyBank Bus Shelter was recently completed on Euclid Avenue.
The piggy is in place on Euclid Avenue. After over two years’ worth of envisioning, planning, organizing, soliciting and fundraising, the new PiggyBank Bus Shelter was opened to the public with a press conference and ribbon cutting on Oct. 24.
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Columbia Heights neighbor Kate Savage (left) and Lextran genenal manager Rocky Burke. Savage has worked for over two years bringing together many organizations to make the new bus shelter on Euclid Avenue a reality.
Located on land donated by Republic Bank, the bus shelter was a joint partnership between the Columbia Heights Neighborhood Association, Lextran, Republic Bank, Art in Motion and over 150 Kickstarter donors who contributed over $10,000 toward the project. The new shelter was an initiative of Columbia Heights neighbor Kate Savage, who felt that the previous, uncovered bus stops in the area didn’t adequately serve the people waiting for public transportation.
Though not an official project of Art in Motion, a local nonprofit which fuses public art and public transit with the construction of artistic bus shelters, the organization’s founder, Yvette Hurt, was instrumental in helping guide Savage through the process of having the shelter come to fruition.
The bus stop was built by Josh Marrillia of Marillia Design and Construction. Designs were provided by Patrick Morgan, a Lexington native who received his masters in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania this past May.
The back of the shelter has a large piggy bank cut out and there are glass panels with graphic designs taken from the $1 bill. At the opening, Savage said there were some unintended surprises in the shelter’s design, such as the shadows the structure created as the sun passed through the sky.
“It’s just a great example of citizen involvement,” Mayor Jim Gray said at the conference. “It’s creative and playful art, and it’s got a public use as well. Citizens, neighbors, businesses and friends who cared came together and did something extraordinary. I just love it.”