Al Qalam: Poets in the Park
Sara Ouhaddou
Elizabeth H. Berger Plaza NYC
2024
Image Credit: Lengash Covenas, courtesy of UAP | Urban Art Projects
While working at UAP NYC, I served as Lead Designer on Al Qalam: Poets in the Park, working closely with artist Sara Ouhaddou, the Washington Street Historical Society, the project commissioner, and the NYC Parks Department throughout a two-year design-assist process.
Because a major subway hub sits beneath the park, the project also required a separate MTA approval process, adding another layer of technical and infrastructural coordination to the work.
Because a major subway hub sits beneath the park, the project also required a separate MTA approval process, adding another layer of technical and infrastructural coordination to the work.
My role focused on translating the artist’s vision into a technically resolved permanent public artwork while guiding the project through New York City’s approval processes. I led the technical design development and supported the preparation of drawings and specifications for reviews by NYC Parks, the Public Design Commission (PDC), and Community Board One, responding to agency markups, technical revisions, and RFIs throughout the process.
Utilising an abstract alphabet developed by the artist, the artwork combines Arabic script with Islamic geometric patterns to creat e a symbolic visual language. Across shimmering gold mosaic surfaces, the names and words of poets connected to the neighbourhood emerge through these forms, creating a lasting tribute to language, migration, and cultural memory.
This permanent public artwork honours the literary and cultural history of Little Syria, home to the United States’ first Arabic-speaking community between 1880 and 1940. It features a stylised sculpture of the Arabic word Al-Qalam (The Pen), measuring approximately 18 feet long, alongside two mosaic-inlaid bench backs, representing lines of poetry penned by nine poets associated with Little Syria. The work is made from aluminium with inlaid glass mosaic.
