Passengers traveling through the Pittsburgh International Airport will be able to touch the sky—before they get on the plane. Designed by local artist and Carnegie Mellon University professor Clayton Merrell, the 69,000-square-foot floor of the Airside Terminal will be transformed into a skyscape composed of terrazzo tiles. Silhouettes of Pittsburgh icons, from the Smithfield Street Bridge to the Carrie Furnace, will dot the horizon of the circular space.

The project, titled The Sky Beneath Our Feet, is a joint effort of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, the Pittsburgh Office of Public Art, architecture firm Lami Grubb, contractor Mosites Construction, and terrazzo company Roman Mosaic & Tile, which will work together over the course of several months to realize Merrell’s vision.

“The experience of striding across the surface of the sky could be a very beautiful and extraordinary extension of the magic of air travel,” Merrell says. “The mundane act of walking through the airport could be transformed into an evocation of the freedom, speed, and openness of flight.”

For more information visit flypittsburgom

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