Our Man In Arlington 4-2-2026

I am following up on last week’s column about Columbia Pike, as I promised to provide a fuller description of the imposing public art installation located at the western end of Columbia Pike, at the Fairfax County border. If you are ever driving through the intersection of Jefferson Street and Columbia Pike, you may notice this fifty-foot sculpture rising into the sky. You might ask, what is this supposed to represent? The answer is in its name: The Pike. 

Constructed from a fifty-foot-tall wind turbine wing, and installed in 2022, this artwork by the artist Donald Lipski is tied into the history of Columbia Pike. The sculpture is a playful nod to the “pikes” employed to stop travelers on the Columbia Pike toll road in the 19^th century. The structure emulates the vertical standing position of a pike after travelers have paid their toll, enabling them to proceed into the County and beyond, as travelers could then cross the Long Bridge into Washington. 

A remarkable detail is that the pedestal is covered by embedded coins from 117 countries. Residents of Columbia Pike collected, counted, and sorted 4,784 coins that come from every continent (except Antarctica). This use of the donated coins reflects the diversity of the neighborhoods along Columbia Pike, which have been referred to as “the world in a zip code.”  

For those of you checking out the artwork on foot, there is some history to be seen: less than two-hundred yards from the artwork, in the median strip of South Jefferson Street, you will see one of the forty sandstone boundary markers installed in 1791, denoting the perimeter of the ten square miles that defined the area of the District of Columbia. 

But getting back to public art, let me commend to you the Arlington County public art website, to be found at “www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Programs/Public-Art.” Their “Permanent Collections” page provides photos and details of the more than 70 permanent public art projects in the County. These works are commissioned by the County to be integrated into various capital improvement projects, often sponsored by developers as part of the site plan process. Arlington’s history of developer-initiated public art goes back to 1979 with the commission of Nancy Holt’s Dark Star Park in Rosslyn.  

In checking out the artworks on the website, I came across another interesting installation from 2022, located within the John Robinson, Jr. Town Square in the Green Valley neighborhood. Over the course of five years, artist and designer Walter Hood engaged residents in the design process. Hood was especially influenced by the historical ties between the neighborhood and Freedman’s Village, the community for escaped slaves and freepersons established at the end of the Civil War on property which later became home to the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery. Former Freedman’s Village residents who remained in the area populated several of Arlington County’s traditionally African American neighborhoods, including Green Valley.  

The primary design feature of the Town Square is the FREED sculpture, a 30-foot-tall beacon which pays homage to the notion of freedom. Each letter of the golden sculpture incorporates laser-cut patterns featuring the name of a historic subdivision of Green Valley. The square also has several special features that incorporate the topography of Green Valley. This area has been named to honor John Robinson, Jr., who was widely recognized for his community activism and was often called the “Mayor of Green Valley.” Among his many accomplishments, Robinson published the Green Valley News, a free African American publication that circulated in Green Valley for more than 45 years. Robinson also founded and led the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in the neighborhood.  

Here is a question that might be percolating in your mind: exactly what is “public art”? Public artworks throughout the County have been located on private property and on public property. I would suggest that the determining factors in defining “public art” would be (i) art that requires County approval; and (ii) art that can be easily accessed by the general public. In any event, one more question for you: do you have any favorite works of public art in the County? If so, let me know at historybillfogs@gmail.com.