The New Lakewood Civic Center Plaza

A few days ago I had to stop in at the LPD to pick up my recovered stolen phone and a few other items. The LPD is located in an area that has been developed by the city of Lakewood over the past 25 years into a central town square of sorts that has been named the Lakewood City Commons. 

It is home to the aforementioned Lakewood Police Dept, the Lakewood Municipal Courts, the Lakewood Cultural Center, and the Lakewood Civic Center, which is divided into two buildings, one north & south - what is basically the city hall is in the LCC south (I have no idea why it is not named the Lakewood City Hall), and across the way is the LCC north building where the various licensing, regulatory & permit departments of the city are housed. 

As I had been intending to stop in at the city permits dept to find out what type and the cost of the permit I would need for the half-wall, half-fence dealio I am going to build to replace the ratty old falling-down backyard fence, when I left the LPD I walked over the skybridge to the LCC north building.

Which, I discovered, is now separated from the LCC south building by the nice, relatively new Lakewood Civic Center Plaza, a pleasant improvement over the bare concrete pavilion that was there before.

            Tom Upham's Dance of the Indian Paintbrush from the south entrance to the LCCP

The LCCP is a rectangular concourse that now features statues by various local sculptors (both commissioned by the city of Lakewood for permanent display, and for sale through the art gallery located in the Lakewood Cultural Center (at the far south end of the LCC north building)

                                View of Dance of the Indian Paintbrush from the north, facing south

                                                    The Lakewood Cultural Center

        The tree-lined esplanade that separates the Lakewood Civic Center north and south buildings

                One of the chess/checkerboard benches that dot the paved walkway of the esplanade

The Lakewood Civic Center Plaza must be a great place to enjoy a lunch break on a sunny summer day - the pavers that make up the central concourse/walkway that wends it's way through the esplanade has plenty of stone benches to sit on, some of which feature chess/checkerboards inset in them. 

Handy if you happened to bring chess pieces or checkers to work with you,,,or maybe a lot of coins.

There is also a small fountain/water feature encircled by wooden benches to sit on if you are not to keen on chess or checkers...or hard stone blocks being used as benches

                               Dancing Flame by Harold Linke. 

I took a look around at the features of the LCCP and all of the sculpture on display. The one above by Harold Linke is the only one I didn't get medium used & pricing info for. 

                                    Desert Plants by Michael Mladjan, steel, $2,500

                                   Storyteller by Gary Monaco, steel & copper, $6,000

                                        Sunflower by Ken Stock, mixed media, $3,200

            Time capsule to be opened August 27th 2115 - provided anyone is still around

                           Mari by Beverly Steigerwald, bronze, $3,400

                                     Nix - The Lab by Carl E. Jensen, bronze, $4,000

                                  Looking south from the north end of the LCCP esplanade

                                                   The north entrance to the LCCP