Sechelt pictograph crosswalk: a shíshálh Nation origin story by artist Dionne Paul

Local Indigenous artist Dionne Paul launched National Aboriginal History Month on June 1st with a spectacular pictograph-themed crosswalk at the Cowrie Street and Trail Avenue intersection in Sechelt, on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, on the traditional territory of the shíshálh Nation.

The design tells the origin story of the shíshálh Nation through a pictograph aesthetic: imagery that draws from the visual language of the Nation's cultural heritage, rendered at the scale of a street crossing.

What the photograph shows

The lede photograph is the intersection from above. All four legs of the crossing carry the design: on each, yellow rays fan out from the corners across a blue field, like suns rising at the edges of the road, held between white borders. A car is passing through the middle, which is the useful scale reference: the design is big enough to read from a driver's seat, and it reads the same from every approach. Around it is the ordinary furniture of a small downtown: curb ramps, storefronts, parked cars.

Working with Dionne Paul's design

Artist Dionne Paul developed the design and worked with us and the project team through the translation from artwork to installation specification. This is the critical phase in any public art crosswalk: the design exists as art; getting it into the road requires engineering every element for the constraints of the thermoplastic system.

Pictograph-style imagery presents specific challenges. The visual language of pictographs relies on precise line weights, specific shape relationships, and colour contrasts that read at different scales. We worked with the artist to ensure the TrafficPatterns™ production specs preserved the design intent: that what was manufactured matched what the artist intended at intersection viewing distance.

TrafficPatterns on the Sunshine Coast

The Cowrie Street intersection sees the full range of Sunshine Coast conditions: salt air, significant rainfall, summer UV, and the seasonal freeze-thaw that BC coastal locations deliver. TrafficPatterns is the appropriate specification for this environment: the bond to the asphalt substrate is strong, the colour formulation is UV-stable, and the service life is measured in years rather than seasons.

The manufacturer of TrafficPatterns publishes the rest: preformed thermoplastic sheets manufactured to the design and heat-fused to the pavement, so there is no spray drift and placement is precise; 125 mil thick, with anti-skid elements throughout the sheet; made to the owner's marking standard; open to traffic within minutes of application. The TrafficPatterns product page carries the specification, under our preformed thermoplastic service.

Our photographs of the same intersection also show StreetBond® surfacing on the lane with DecoMark lane markings, in the bike lanes gallery, the crossing and the lane treatment reading as one designed corner.

The Sechelt installation joins a portfolio of First Nations and Indigenous community crosswalk projects we've completed across BC: each one a permanent marking of cultural presence in the civic landscape. Nearby, our record also holds the Tsain-Ko Centre crosswalk and a rainbow crosswalk in Sechelt; the public art gallery has the wider set.

For a Nation, district or arts council planning one

• Bring the installer into the artwork stage. Line weights and colour separations that work on paper have to survive the cut; the earlier the conversation, the fewer compromises.
• Design for every approach. A four-leg intersection is seen from four directions; a design that reads the same way from each, as this one does, is a design decision, not an accident.
• Time the unveiling to the story. A crossing launched on a date that matters (here, the start of National Aboriginal History Month) carries its meaning from the first day.

For public art crosswalk projects on the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island and beyond, send a photo of the crossing and a postal code to office@squareonepaving.com, call 604-612-6209, or use the contact form. We come out, look, and put a written quote together.