"On Growth and Form" is a branching installation by artist Kipp Kobayashi, made of steel rebar integrated under the Well Avenue underpass bridge on 4th street invoking the history of the lumber industry in Reno. 

After a year and a half of working with the community, artist Kipp Kobayashi was selected for the E. 4th Street Public Art project. His installation, On Growth and Form, takes inspiration from the history of the E. 4th Street district. 

The artist, Kipp Kobayashi, remarks: 

"Tracing the history of the project site, I was interested to discover that it had once been home to Reno Mill and Lumber (later the Verdi Lumber Company then the Eveleth Lumber Company), a planing mill and sash factory with yards that accommodated several thousand acres of pine cut from the nearby Tahoe basin. I began to consider not only the sheer volume of timber that had passed through the site but also the mechanical process of changing these beautiful organic forms into geometrically shaped and regularly dimensioned materials that could readily be used for building and construction. Playing off this history, I imagined branches of rebar emanating from the bridge as if growing out from its very structure. Flourishing independently but still integral to the form, they appear as fantastical visions – as if history has emerged from the past - reimagined and reinterpreted through the many different lenses of time." 

Artist Selection 

In May 2019, the City of Reno took significant steps to celebrate and revitalize the 4th Street District. 

If you have questions or would like more information, please email publicart@reno.gov

The 4th Street Public Art Project is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.