Javier Machado 

"Habitat" transforms a mandatory detention basin into a landscape sculpture. The artist made planted terraces formed by stone filled wire mesh containers called gabions. Upper and lower gabion rings have light grey stone and the middle ring dark red. Centered on the basin’s white gravel covered floor is a 6’ high bluestone pyramid surrounded by three low mounds, each clad with different sizes and colors of river stone. The basin is viewed from the perimeter sidewalks. A review in “Sculpture” magazine says that “The work overlays the American site sculpture tradition of the 1970’s onto the generic infrastructure of the suburban railroad station.” Across from the “Habitat” basin the artist has placed a precast wall cap on a low two-hundred foot long retaining wall which parallels the station platform and provides a place for people to sit or lean. All work was integrated into the station landscape documents and built by the general contractor.

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Montclair State University Station, Little Falls, NJ  2005

Basin: 15’ x 160’ x 100’

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Landscape Architect: Larry Lockwood and Mike Vizcardi

A project of Arts-in-Transit of New Jersey Transit