Rick Kelley/Valley Morning Star
Long-neglected Lozano Plaza in the downtown district begins a major makeover with Thursday’s unveiling of a sculpture by a local artist at 5:30 p.m.
HARLINGEN — Long-neglected Lozano Plaza in the downtown district begins a major makeover with Thursday’s unveiling of a sculpture by a local artist.
The sculpture is under wraps until the ceremony at 5:30 p.m., but it appears to be about 25 feet long and two feet high and is highly colorful in spelling out the city’s name.
The artist who created the sculpture is Alexander Comminos, who with his wife, Rachel, have worked at their downtown Comminos Studio in the old Plaza Hotel for eight years.
“With the nine letters, you have cacti as one of the influences, a spherical shape is one of the influences, tubular pipe, you have leaves, flowers, gears and different motifs for different letters,” Alexander Comminos said Wednesday.
“So basically Harlingen is nine letters, and each is a two-foot by one-foot steel sculpture,” Comminos said. “In and of themselves they are artistic features, but when put together, they spell out Harlingen.”
Comminos said he brought together a team to create the sculpture, which took about six months to conceive and design, and another month to fabricate.
Comminos created the concept and ideas for the fabrication, which was performed by Sean Hughes and Billy Gonzalez. TJ Palacios handled the paint and surface.
The artwork is the initial act in a multi-phase improvement plan for Lozano Plaza, which includes the addition of restrooms and a performing stage, city officials say.
The empty, grass-filled lot at the corner of Jackson Street and A Street has been a prime if vacant property following the fire around six years ago which destroyed the Lozano Building. The city subsequently acquired the property.
Two years ago the city unveiled a mural of the late Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher on one of the walls overlooking Lozano Plaza.
Kelleher was instrumental in the development of Valley International Airport’s passenger service by being an early and influential supporter of the airport. His commitment to Southwest Airlines flights to and from VIA beginning around 1975 formed the foundation of what now is a facility used by seven different passenger airlines.
