custom iron railing by smithworks iron and design for the atlanta beltline

The seed for this effort was planted some twenty years ago. I volunteered with a friend to do work with Trees Atlanta, and had the pleasure to dig alongside Greg Levine, the non-profit’s founding member. I was already working in the metal arts, but was certainly, if earnestly, very new to it as a profession.

Time rolled on. Greg kept with his path and I with mine. On rare occasions those paths crossed, but I believe on both counts, we remembered a very pleasant meeting between two driven individuals.

In 2020, an opportunity came up to do a significant and permanent art installation with the Atlanta BeltLine. I had worked with them before on several temporary sculpture installations for Art on the BeltLine and also in the creation of 1000 commemorative pieces of excavated and repurposed train track for a fundraising campaign.

In this particular opportunity with the Atlanta BeltLine, the other player was Trees Atlanta. Luckily Greg remembered me and my work, and I was enlisted to assist.

The charge was to create 300 plus feet of sculptural decorative railing that snaked along a raised wooden boardwalk which showcased a peat bog that was planted and is maintained by Trees Atlanta. The bog runs adjacent to a portion of the BeltLine’s Westside Trail and crosses in front of the Best End Brewing Company. This is part of a line of development of long abandoned industrial warehouses in Atlanta's Historic West End. Being a big fan of good food, and good beer myself, I was very pleased to learn over the course of such an ambitious undertaking, that the Best End Brewing Company had plenty of both.

Conceptually, the star of the project was the pitcher plant, a carnivorous plant native to Georgia that thrives in the peaty soil. We were to emulate them with metal, as well as the other flora and fauna that lived in symbiosis with the pitcher plants (longleaf pines, box tortoises etc.) Practically, the rail was to guide viewers off of the BeltLine to admire the bog and to keep patrons, who had enjoyed maybe too many of Best End’s delicious brews, and their dogs from wandering into the area and trampling the plants.

We took it on and enjoyed this long labor of love. But from a strictly business minded perspective, it was a challenge. Being that it was in the public sphere, for the greater good, and to be used as an educational tool, we were elated to be a part of it and wanted to give it our all. And while the budget was generous, it could not match the resources of our well-heeled private clientele.

In the end, we pushed ourselves as far as we could. I even used it as an opportunity for our staff to showcase some of their individual talent and creativity. While it is functionally "complete," we intend to continue to work on it as time and resources allow.

Given that it is such a fun, funky, and functional work for the people, there really is no limit to how much we would like to put into it.