Marble Steps | Sebastian Martorana

Salvaged Marble Stoops: Now Permanent Game Tables

Jul 1, 2014

Barclay Chess Tables, reclaimed marble

This public art piece is part of the redevelopment project in the Barclay neighborhood. I was contacted by the sculpture department at MICA who was asked by the developer, Telesis Corp, to assist with reincorporating the salvaged marble stoops from the neighborhood back into the project in an artistic way.

Primary in my thought process was allowing this new neighborhood to have a physical and psychological connection to its historic past. These stair treads are once again acting as a location for communal gathering for people of all ages and backgrounds.

The placement of the stone was planned as to allow, for the tallest likely person, while still being usable for the shortest, keeping children in mind. The material and the fact that the checkered game surface is etched directly into the face of the stone means that they are permanent.

Though the timeline did not allow for the most complex of sculptural concepts or structures here, sometimes simple is beautiful. I am very excited to have been able to incorporate this piece of Baltimore’s past into a project for its future.

I have larger and more intricate ideas for art to be included in the next phase of this development, which will include another larger adjacent park. However, I am very pleased that this piece has been positively received by the community so far. I hope that it will continue to be the kind of art piece that serves the aesthetic, cultural and functional needs of the community, becoming a destination that the neighborhood can be proud of.

They are located on Worsley St, between, Barclay St and Greenmount Ave.

Barclay Chess Tables, reclaimed marble

Marble steps reused as gathering place

Jun 29, 2014

The Baltimore Sun
June 29, 2014
By Meredith Cohn

Alice Johnson noticed the checker boards that recently popped up behind her house, a neat brick rowhouse in the Barclay neighborhood of Baltimore.

“People will definitely use them,” she said. “I play. I wish I could play chess, too.”

She should have time to learn. The boards have been etched permanently into 1,000-pound slabs of marble in a new community courtyard.

The stones are salvaged steps from several area houses, and the artist who placed them in the courtyard hopes they become a new kind of Baltimore front steps — where urban dwellers have long gathered, told stories and played games.

The marble was saved by Telesis Corp., which began construction in 2010 on an $85 million project to rehabilitate and rebuild vacant city-owned homes, in an effort to bring new life to an area adjacent to the Station North arts district.

The company had contacted an artist at the Maryland Institute College of Art about reusing the stone from the Beaver Dam quarry in Cockeysville. The quarry supplied stone for many of the marble steps in Baltimore, as well as for more prominent projects, but is now used primarily as a swimming hole . . .

Follow this link to read the full article on The Baltimore Sun.