The delayed and long-awaited “East Meets West” sculpture at the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza in Tulsa is set to be unveiled in October, reported the Tulsa World.
The bronze sculpture, which depicts two frightened carriage horses rearing up at the sight of an early car driven by Cyrus Avery and his wife, was designed by Texas artist Robert Summers. Deep in the Heart Art Foundry in Bastrop, Texas, is casting the bronze.
Clint Howard, owner of the foundry, told the World that it’s one of the biggest projects it’s done.
At 135 percent actual size, the sculpture will weigh nearly 20,000 pounds, stretch more than 60 feet from end to end, and rise 15 feet in the air. […]
Howard estimates that by the time the sculpture is complete, his foundry will have cast and welded nearly 1,000 pieces of bronze. […]
“This is definitely the most complicated, based on all the components and the levels of detail,” Howard said. “We have all the pedals in the floorboard, the key in the ignition, the brake assembly.”
Assembling the four-piece sculpture probably will require two weeks, he said.
The sculpture went through cost overruns and about three years of delays, including when Summers suffered catastrophic injuries in a fall.
Avery, a Tulsa resident, was known as the “Father of Route 66” for his role in commissioning the U.S. highway in 1926. Avery Plaza is located at Southwest Boulevard (aka Route 66) near the Arkansas River. “Route 66: The Mother Road” author Michael Wallis has often proclaimed the river as the dividing line between the western and eastern regions of the United States.
Avery Plaza also sits next to the future site of a Route 66 museum.