PITTSTON TWP. -- Some of the most expensive artwork for the new $35 million airport terminal will be stepped on by travelers.
Two terrazzo mosaics costing a total of $154,768 will be inlaid in the floor. Yorie Tile & Terrazzo Inc. of Hazleton was budgeted $47,996 for materials and installation of a mosaic on the second floor and $106,772 for one on the first floor, according to paperwork provided on request by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport.
Last week, airport director Barry Centini said the original budget for the artwork was $120,000, but it later ballooned to close to $300,000 with the addition of the floor mosaics.
The cost is $297,654, according to the paperwork Centini provided. The cost rises to $305,514 with a Jan. 10 quote for a glass wall from artist Hank Fells.
Fells, of the Lake Winola area, is one of the three local artists selected by a committee assembled to solicit and review proposals for artwork. The others are William Chickillo of the Dalton area and Herbert Simon of Shavertown.
Highland Associates of Clark Summit, a design and engineering firm working on the terminal, oversaw the artwork project at a cost of $30,000. The firm was paid $861 for reimbursable expenses and paid out $4,800 to the artists for submissions for the terminal art.
Fells designed the floor mosaics and created a mobile and sculpture for the terminal. His design costs total $8,360. Aluminum lettering and a logo he created cost another $3,865. He received commissions of $12,000 for the stainless steel and steel mobile and $22,000 for the multi-media sculpture.
The airport awarded an $11,000 commission to Chickillo for a framed painting in the airport boardroom. He is still working on the oil on linen painting of the Susquehanna River. It measures approximately 52 inches by 70 inches.
Only Simon's sculpture, entitled "Aloft," is finished and in place. The anodized aluminum sculpture commissioned at a cost of $50,000 stands atop the steps of a walkway leading into the terminal tunnel. It can be seen from the parking garage and lot.
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