Zurich as a garden city

 

 

If you visited the city of Zurich this summer, you probably bumped into one of the 300 flowers pots in the city. You probably also have at least one picture with one of them.

Those beautiful works of art, decorating the pots, quickly got my attention. I had not heard of this project and was amazed the first time I walked through the main street, the Bahnofstrasse, to see so many colorful pots.

After the cows in 1998, the benches in 2001, the teddys in 2007, Zurich’s new hot thing was the flower pots.

René Grüninger, responsible for the project, interviewed by the TSR, (Swiss TV), said that “the idea was to put Zurich in a flowered garden”. The goal was achieved and pleased tourists and Zurichers alike.

The city even organized guided tours three times a week for this occasion. The hope was to bring 1 additional Million visitors to Zurich.

So one day, I took a downtown city map, marked the streets featuring them and wandered around to observe, learn and take pictures. I was not disappointed in looking at the original pots with fish, potato, or butterflies or at the graffiti art work on the Paradeplatz.

 

The many young or well-known artists who worked on this long and difficult task were carefully chosen. They came from Switzerland, Germany, and Italy.

Apparently it was not an easy thing to paint on the pot as they had to adapt their painting styles to the curved pots. All were 1.5 meters high and weighted 1 ton.

Now the pots, which pleased our eyes, brightened the city for a while, made us curious about an artist or a plant, are gone, sold at auction. Maybe you had the chance to buy one for your backyard.

 

How much did the pots cost? 1 million Swiss Francs (1 mil. USD) by city businesses! Not bad in a time of crisis.

Zurich can`t wait for its next work of art.

Here are my favorite ones:

• 100 Jahre Dampfschiff Stadt Zürich, Bürkliplatz
• See my train passing, Marshall Art, Paradeplatz
• Topfgeflatter-Bucherer Deko, Bahnofstrasse
• Walkie-Talkie, Birds, Hans Langner, Rail city shops

 

• Together, Deko Team Confiserie Sprüngli, Bahnofstrasse

 

• Art
• flowers
• Garden city
• Switzerland
• Zurich