Calgary’s ‘Wishing Well’ sculpture finds new home in Bridgeland

The City of Calgary has fixed and moved its “Wishing Well” art piece to a new location in Bridgeland.

The “Wishing Well” was initially placed at the Genesis Centre in northeast Calgary in 2012, but it was taken down in 2014 after a woman’s jacket was “singed” from extreme heat — it’s since been fixed.

The stainless steel sculpture was initially designed by the known San Francisco’s artist team Living Lenses (Louise Bertelsen and Po Shu Wang).

The City says it added non-reflective coating to the interior of the art piece to reduce how hot the sculpture will get in direct sunlight.

The Bridgeland location is also much shadier, meant to reduce sunlight reflections for drivers and pedestrians.

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“By placing the ‘Wishing Well’ on a 20-degree angle facing west-east, the sculpture will receive the least amount of sunlight exposure during the day. Sunlight exposure will further be minimized with the sculpture being placed next to a high-rise condo building,” the City said.

“Wishing Well” has also been electronically updated, with a text messaging feature, people can send a message to 1-587-327-9939 and the sculpture will respond with light and sound.

“Your words will be processed into braille text dots which are then sent to a virtual music box,” the City said. “This music box contains the recorded voices of your fellow neighbours and it will interpret your words into melody – singing your message back to you. Your message will also be translated into a colour pattern of lights.”