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A Solar System Walk Project for Gainesville, Florida

[ History ] [ New Model ] [ Call to Artists ] [ Guidelines ] [ Other Models ] [ Scale of Model ] [ More Info ]
Solar System
The Solar System: Can You Name These Solar System Bodies?		 Did you know that the "solar system" is missing? From 1993 to 1996 Gainesville had a solar system model along one of its busy streets. Our solar system made many friends until vandalism took its toll. To learn more about its history and prospects for rebirth, read this page.

Restoring the solar system walk is now a city and AAC project. Tarpoon Springs artist Elizabeth Indianos has now been selected to design this project.
(See "Call to Artists" below)

The Solar System is Missing!

In 1993 Chip Sullivan, a Gainesville businessman and member of the AAC, developed the original concept for a solar walk in Gainesville. Mr. Sullivan helped raise money for a series of signs to be placed along NW 8 Avenue. (The AAC funded the Jupiter sign.) Mr. Sullivan placed these signs along the south side of N.W. 8th Avenue between N.W. 22nd Street and N.W. 34th Street to illustrate the scale of our solar system of planets including their relative diameters. The signs were vandalized over the years and the remaining signs were taken down in 1996.

The Sun and each planet had its own sign. Signs were spaced to show the relative average sizes of each orbit using a scale of about four billion to one. Circles on the signs also showed the relative sizes of each planet compared with the Sun. The Sun sign was at the west end of 8th Avenue near 34th Street with Pluto placed about 0.9 miles to the east (just below the hill leading up to N.W. 22nd Street). These signs were conveniently placed for both Littlewood Elementary School, Westwood Middle School and Westside Park.

Unfortunately, by 1996, most of the signs had been vandalized or had disappeared. School teachers, who took students to see Gainesville's "solar system," quickly noted the loss of the solar system signs. The missing signs stimulated Gainesville Sun columnist Gary Kirkland to write about the missing signs ("University & Main," Gainesville Sun, October 9, 1996 and October 16, 1996).

AAC Vice-President, Howard L. Cohen, responded to the loss of signs in a letter to the Gainesville Sun (pg. 11A, October 17, 1998). The letter noted that the AAC would attempt to restore the signs at a future date. However, the project lay dormant until the last quarter of 1998.

The New Model

Solar System WalkThe Alachua Astronomy Club began to discuss setting up a new solar system model for Gainesville in the fall of 1998. Simultaneously the Gainesville City Commission decided to pursue this project and charged the Arts in Public Places Trust (APPT) with overseeing this work. In addition, the Gainesville City Commissioner passed a motion at its November 23, 1998 meeting to support this project with an initial $5,000.00 pledge. During the first two months of 1999 the APPT and several members of the met to establish guidelines for solar system model. The APPT used these guidelines (designated a "Call to Artists") to invite Florida artists to submit proposals for design and construction of the solar system walk.

This new solar system model was to use permanent, artistic models. The budget for this project was set at approximately thirty to forty thousand dollars but remained open since the budget was contingent on the final design of the model and the fund raising ability of the Gainesville community. (A similar project in Ithaca, New York, is called the Sagan Planet Walk.)

Nine Florida artists submitted proposals for this project. A selection committee, consisting of the Art in Public Places Trust and representatives from the AAC, reviewed proposals for recommendation to the City Commission. (Postmark deadline for submission of proposals was April 21, 1999.) The APPT selected Elizabeth Indianos from Tarpon Springs to design and build the Gainesville Solar System Walk. The Gainesville City Commission approved the committee's selection at its May 24, 1999 meeting.

Note: Ms. Indianos has also done another unique project for Gainesville—a theater lobby feature for The Royal Park Stadium 16 Theater, again in conjunction with the AAC.

Subsequently the City of Gainesville contributed $5,000 toward the Solar Walk and the AAC raised an additional $25,000 for this project. Concrete slabs for the planetary monuments were poured during February 2002. The planetary monuments were erected during the first week of March 2002. (See some pictures of the installation.)

However, the AAC still needs to raise an additional $15,500 for bronze information plaques for each planet monument. These plaques will give data for each planet and will show the relative sizes of each planet compared to the Sun. Children will also be able to make "rubbings" from the plaques showing they have visited each planet! (See Call to Artists below for additional information.)

Call to Artists
Call to Artists

In late February 1999, the APPT sent out a "Call to Artists" soliciting interested people to design this project. These guidelines included a map (see below) showing the location of the solar system walk and a table detailing the required planet spacings and size (using a four billion to one scale).

The APPT met with AAC representatives on May 5, 1999 to review all submitted proposals. From a pool of nine proposals, the committee selected Tarpon Springs artist Elizabeth Indianos to design this project. The Gainesville City Commission approved the APPT's recomendation at its May 24, 1999 meeting.

Ms. Indianos worked with city personnel and engineers to iron out project details and finalized the design. The AAC and the artist are continuing to seek additional funds in order to complete this project by the summer of 2002.

Contributions Invited!Parties interested in contributing to this civic project are encouraged to contact AAC President, Michael Toomey: (phone 352-528-3476 or e-mail mike@floridastars.org)


Solar Walk Project Guidelines

  1. Proposal Guidelines (Includes Required Elements, Budget, Selection Process, Qualifications and Submission Requirements)

  2. Location Map (11K gif, 556x414),  Larger Map (15K gif, 721x537),  Black & White Map (12.5K gif, 676x543) — Best for Printing

  3. Project Design Measurement Table — Shows scaled version of Solar System Project

    [See listings below for links to other solar system models and information about the solar system.]
Other Solar System Models

Other links to info about solar system scale models: A Solar System Scale Model Meta Page.

Scale of the Solar Walk

For hundreds of year curious people wondered about the spacings of the planets from the Sun. In the eighteenth century a German astronomer, J. Daniel Titius, devised a numerical rule that gave the orbit spacings of all planets known before the discovery of Uranus. (This rule is now usually called the Titius-Bode "Law".) To learn more about this relation, read "The Titius-Bode Relation Revisited," an article that first appeared in the club's newsletter (FirstLight) in May 1996.

More Info About the Solar System

Need more information about the solar system? The Web has several good sites giving details about solar system objects (Sun, planets, satellites, etc.). Here are a few recommended sites to visit:

For other astronomy web sites, visit the AAC's Astro Links Page

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