This image shows an example of a potential public art mural in Pleasant Ridge that would be located on the side of City Hall.
By: Mike Koury | Woodward Talk | Published July 23, 2025
PLEASANT RIDGE — Pleasant Ridge’s drive to install new public art made progress at a recent City Commission meeting.
At the July 8 meeting, the City Commission received the official Public Art Framework Plan created to get feedback and an idea of what kind of public art could fit into Pleasant Ridge.
The plan, which was worked on for more than a year, was made with three objectives in mind, according to city documents: proposing a framework for public art installations; developing concepts for gateway improvements; and creating design proposals for a legacy monument.
“This has been a project of love,” said Ralph Nunez, who led the creation of the plan with his firm, NunezDesign. “We worked hard. We’ve met some great people in the community. … It’s really and truly near and dear to my heart.
“I just really appreciate the opportunity to work with this community. I’ve done a number of projects and this is one of my favorite communities,” he continued.
The four areas identified for art were the Pleasant Ridge Community Center, Hessel Park, the Woodward Corridor and Gainsboro Park. The plan also identified four themes based on community feedback — nature, history, people and homes.
City Manager James Breuckman stated that this is just a framework plan and that no specific pieces were being recommended. It will be the job of the city’s Arts Council to implement the ideas of the framework.
“It’s more of just organizing our efforts,” he said. “Sculpture, murals, art wraps, even things like earth mounding in landscape in our park areas — particularly, potentially in the Woodward greenbelt to serve as a backdrop for potential art and to complement the open green space feel of the greenbelt parks with, you know, just a little extra something.”
Breuckman said one of the things the city is looking at is legacy markers where pieces such as benches, trees and stones could be used for memorials.
“Quite frankly, we’re out of benches and it’s difficult to find a location,” he said. “So, there’s a potential to create an art-focused area to also serve as a place where people can memorialize or celebrate life events.”
No art pieces have been installed as of yet in Pleasant Ridge, and that is intentional. Breuckman said that, because art means different things to different people, the city wanted to focus on what exactly it wanted for these public spaces, and what the Arts Council decided was it wanted quality art pieces, not a quantity of them.
“We want to make sure that, you know, fast is slow but slow is smooth and it’s making sure that we move intentionally so that everything we do is high quality, unique and … meaningful,” he said. “So we’re working on implementing some things now. Now we get to the really exciting part when we start to see all of these things that we’ve worked on for so long come together.”
Mayor Bret Scott said the passion shows in the plan, which can be viewed in full at cityofpleasantridge.org/artscouncil, and he can’t wait for pieces to start popping up in the city.
“It’s easy to take for granted the value that art brings to a community,” he said. “Imagine Nine Mile Road five years ago and today and what it has done for Oak Park. It has transformed that little section of Nine Mile, just having art along the road, and we can have the same impact here.”