22 May 2024
Crews on Tuesday added umbrella-shaped benches and planters to downtown Bangor’s seasonal art display featuring dozens of multicolored umbrellas hanging over Cross Street.
Umbrella flower pots and benches are new additions this year to the Umbrella Sky project on Cross Street in Bangor. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
The circular benches and planters, which look like yellow upside-down umbrellas, sit on the corner of Cross and Main streets. They were included in the original plan for the Umbrella Sky Project when the Bangor City Council approved the plan in June 2023, but the benches and planters never made it to the street before the umbrellas were taken down for the winter last year.
The umbrella project has additions this year; it now extends the full length of the one-way street and umbrella flower pots and benches are on the sidewalks. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
Since debuting in Portugal in 2012, similar Umbrella Sky displays have popped up all over the world. The Umbrella Sky Project was inspired by Mary Poppins and is intended to bring color to otherwise mundane city streets, directing pedestrians and traffic toward the area.
Douglas Holland, employee of Nichols Construction, works on the installation of the Umbrella Sky project on Cross Street in downtown Bangor on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
This is the second year Bangor has hosted the art display, made possible by the Downtown Bangor Partnership and sponsor Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. Crews started hanging the umbrellas last week.