In 2003, Valley Metro Rail (now Valley Metro) selected Benson Shaw and three other artists to provide artwork for the four Apache Blvd light rail stations in Tempe, AZ. Suikang Zhao (New York) was assigned entry elements. Dan Corson (Seattle) was assigned lighting and light elements. Christine Bourdette (Portland, OR) was assigned greenwall locations. Shaw (Seattle) was assigned station pavements. At each station they created a suite of complementary artworks examining regional and local context.
Shaw designed the Evaporation/Condensation configuration of station unit pavers and provided mosaic embedments.
A component of Shaw’s work is his Apache Stories Project, a library of anecdotes and stories relating experiences of people who live, work or otherwise access the Apache Blvd area of Tempe. The stories were collected through appeals and referrals, and edited for use as pavement text medallions. Responses represent experiences from many decades of the 20th Century. Archive research provided additional samples from prehistory through 2008.
125 stainless steel text and image medallions are embedded in mosaics throughout the platforms of the four Apache Blvd stations.
Shaw installed the pavement artwork at all four stations in 2008.