How to see the famous Paul Coze Phoenix Bird sculpture in modern Phoenix - yes, it's still there


If you're a fan of Phoenix history of the 1960s, you know about the sculpture that artist Paul Coze did of the Phoenix Bird for the Town and Country Shopping Center, at 20th Street and Camelback Road. You may even remember seeing it. And it may surprise you to find that you can still see it, it just takes a little bit of work. Come along with me. As of this writing, March 2018, it's there, on public display, in what I call "hidden in plain sight".

If you're a better driver than I am (and that wouldn't take much!) and keep your eyes on the road, you may have gone past it many times and never seen it. It's now on 21st Street and Camelback Road. Yes, it's there, and if you've never seen it there, really I can't blame you.

I "rediscovered it" about three years ago when I asked the Woman in My Life to help me look for it. At the time she was working right across the street, and had never seen it. I was convinced that it was there, so one day we went to look for it. Sure enough, there it is!

The Paul Coze Phoenix Bird sculpture at Town and Country. Located on Camelback Road and 21st Street in 2015. Difficult to see, but it's there.

No, it's not a conspiracy man. It's simply an unfortunate placement, a design that meant well. I'm a designer myself and I know that all too often designs fail. Luckily for me, I design on a computer where I can scrap it all and try again, but the design at 21st Street and Camelback is set in brick. I'm sure it looked good "on the drawing boards" but in practice the sculpture is nearly invisible from just about any angle.

It's not easy to see from the street, so I advise entering Town and Country at 21st Street, stashing your car, and getting out to see it. Look out for cars!

I'm thrilled that the nice people at Town and Country choose to keep, restore, and display this important piece of Phoenix history. And I love to be able to say, "yes, it's still there."
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Comments

  1. Clarke RiedyJanuary 14, 2020 at 5:46 PM

    I’m amazed there is no comment on this Brad. The reason for that is sad. Just after Public Art in the Arizona West was reaching a threshold where it could actively participate on a major scale and a new philosophy of “Placemaking” was being developed and debated, the Digital Age dawned upon the scene and plazas were replaced with websites, the public forum with innumerable chat rooms, and the marketplace has been falling to the online point of sale.

    Your observations of the CAD designed hardscape’s failure to comprehend the sight lines and exposures is analgous to the internet’s broadly distorted effects on the veracity of information.

    The problem with the real world is that it requires the commitment of a lifetime to secure its comprehension. The virtual world requires no such commitment really. A body of knowledge? A personal cosmology? We’re more inclined to just Google as needed. It’s all reduced to bits, compressed, Forget comprehension, we can scarcely be bothered to apprehend the facts. Let the algorithms handle the correlations.

    Art is a prayer to the immediate future asking, “Please find enough value to refrain from discarding this continuum of effort.” The hope is that one day enough understanding will be recovered to appreciate our best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FastvardJanuary 15, 2020 at 3:17 PM

    Remembered it as a child and still look for it and know I am good again, until I need to see it next time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. jmbossFebruary 1, 2021 at 11:30 AM

    I would love to see the sculpture returned to its original location at the mall as it was in the 1960's.

    ReplyDelete

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