Official City Release
New gateway artwork is a welcoming sign of the times
Mentioned Entities
Analysis
Overview
Fort Worth has installed 10-foot Cor-Ten steel letters spelling 'FORT WORTH' along westbound State Highway 121, between Maxine Street and the Beach Street exit.
Community Impact
Environment
Insights by Role
Journalist
MediumMedium significance — notable action worth trackingThe project's 22-year arc from a 2004 grant award to a 2026 installation — spanning a site relocation, an abandoned first design process with an unnamed artist, and the mid-project death of co-designer Kevin Sloan — offers several accountability threads. The article does not disclose total project cost or the identity of the first artist whose design was not used.
Resident
LowLow significance — routine or procedural itemDrivers approaching downtown Fort Worth on westbound State Highway 121 will encounter the installed steel letters between Maxine Street and the Beach Street exit. Native wildflower and grass planting and nighttime illumination are still pending, with full installation expected this spring and prairie-style maturity requiring several additional growing cycles.
Source Text
Open source →Say howdy to new welcoming gateway artwork that greets drivers as they approach downtown Fort Worth from westbound State Highway 121.
The long-anticipated artwork created by the artist and landscape architect team of Etty Horowitz and Kevin Sloan arrived in Fort Worth last week. The artwork features 10-foot-high Cor-Ten steel letters mounted on low concrete pedestals that line up to spell out FORT WORTH as drivers approach.
The artwork will be underplanted in native Texas wildflowers and grasses for color and texture through much of the year, giving the area around the concrete footings the look and feel of a native Texas prairie. The letters will be illuminated at night.
View a video showing the installation:
The design was inspired by the concept of “an old road to the west” and the repetition of crop rows. The artwork is sited between Maxine Street and the Beach Street exit on the north side of the westbound traffic lanes of State Highway 121.
After installation of the letters, artwork lighting and the planting of native wildflowers and grasses will follow, with the full project anticipated to be completed this spring. After several growing cycles, the plantings are expected to reach full maturity as envisioned in the design.
A long-awaited welcome
The project was begun when the City of Fort Worth received a prestigious Governor’s Community Achievement Award in 2004 for its Keep Fort Worth Beautiful efforts. Keep Texas Beautiful, in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), has awarded the prestigious Governor’s Community Achievement Awards to Texas communities since 1969. The funds are used for landscaping projects along state highway rights-of-way.
Fort Worth Public Art became involved in the project in 2007, and the artist and landscape architect team of Horowitz and Sloan were selected in 2012 after an earlier design process with another artist did not move forward.
The project was originally planned for westbound Interstate 30 but was relocated and redesigned for State Highway 121 in 2018, when long-term plans for the Interstate 30 corridor determined it was no longer a good fit for the project.
Kevin Sloan died in 2021, and landscape architect Matt Stubbs, formerly of Kevin Sloan Studio and now with DSGN Associates Inc., along with lead artist Etty Horowitz, have worked with TxDOT and the City of Fort Worth’s Transportation & Public Works Department to shepherd the project to completion.
Funding for the project is provided by the Governor’s Community Achievement Award with additional funding from the City of Fort Worth.
About Fort Worth Public Art
Fort Worth Public Art www.fwpublicart.org is a City of Fort Worth program created to enhance the visual environment, commemorate the city’s rich cultural and ethnic diversity, integrate artwork into the development of the City’s capital infrastructure improvements and to promote tourism and economic vitality.
Managed by Arts Fort Worth with oversight by the Fort Worth Art Commission, FWPA strives for artistic excellence and meaningful community involvement.
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