Ellen M. Bozman Government Center Public Art Projects

Rendering of two Ellen M. Bozman Government Center Public Art Projects

Location

2100 Clarendon Blvd, Arlington, VA 22201

Maps Directions Transit Parking

Artwork Details

Artist: Kipp Kobayashi and linn meyers

Expected: 2026

BACKGROUND

Starting in May 2021, the County put out a call for artists to create a suspended artwork for the interior entrance of the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center (Bozman), the seat of County government for Arlington, VA and the location of many County offices and departments. The installation is intended as a capstone to the ongoing renovations to the Bozman lobby, which includes the consolidation and upgrades to public conference rooms, better access to customer services and security and technology improvements. The integration of public art as part of this renovation is meant to celebrate civic space and civic life in Arlington. 

Guided by an Art Advisory Panel (AAP) comprised of community and County staff stakeholders and selected with guidance from the County Manager’s Office, Arlington Public Art  chose two artists to help highlight civic life in the design of Bozman Government Center. Linn Meyers was selected to develop privacy screening for the meeting room windows adjacent to the entranceway with her piece titled The Mostly Invisible Ever Present. Her dense, intricate drawings began by tracing, re-tracing and abstracting sections of Arlington’s topography. Once drawn by hand, the artist worked with digital imaging professionals and a vinyl printing company to digitize and scale her drawings for installation on the lobby glass. This piece was installed in February of 2025. 

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Kipp Kobayashi was selected to develop the suspended artwork based on a review of his previous installations and after a series of community-engaged mapmaking workshops presented The paths we take… a mixed media installation of laser cut stainless steel with acrylic enamel coating that depicts a social, story based and three-dimensional map of Arlington. As part of his process, Kobayashi sought public input via a survey to learn about the different routes residents take to get to some of their favorite places in Arlington.

“Please tell us your stories, memories, and experiences of Arlington County by sharing a special route that you currently take or have taken through Arlington County,” the survey says. “The route should be to a place that you find especially meaningful. Examples are a park, place of worship, restaurant, friend’s house, bike trail, bench, etc.”

With nearly 1,200 survey responses, both online and in person at the Bozman Lobby Grand Opening, throughout the County Fair and during a County Board meeting, Kobayashi used these personal maps of the County to inform and develop the multi-layered sculpture for the lobby of Bozman. 

BOZMAN INSTALLATION

As Kobayashi’s artwork progressed, it became apparent that the initial single point of attachment installed in the ceiling would not be sufficient. With the designed sculpture’s weight distribution, the sculpture would need additional points of attachment to spread the weight more equally. The artist, in collaboration with an engineer, took this opportunity and designed a new “cloud structure” that both distributes the weight as well as mimics the existing recess in the ceiling to make the installation fit more singularly and cleanly into the design of the building. Strong attention was needed to design this cloud structure, with the artist’s fabricators even taking a three-dimensional laser scan of the ceiling to ensure that everything will fit precisely. 

The two artists’ site-specific installations are meant to work in tandem with one another, both abstracting and reimagining what the civic life of Arlington looks like through the abstraction and reinterpretation of mapping as the final addition to the lobby renovations that started back in 2019.

The installations are funded in part by public art contributions from the Bush Construction Corporation, Carr Properties Partnership, Erkiletian Development Co. and Jefferson Apartment Group that were earmarked to support public art projects in the Courthouse neighborhood as a part of the County Site Plan process.

Learn more about Kipp Kobayashi.             

Learn more about linn meyers.

Learn more about the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center.