Sacramento County commissions huge art piece for $400M airport parking garage
The Sacramento County Department of Airports has commissioned an enormous art installation for the outside of the new $400 million, six-story Terminal B parking garage currently under construction.
Paul Ramírez Jonas, an interdisciplinary artist and chair of Cornell University’s art department, will produce a work that covers three sides of the 5,500-space parking garage. The piece is titled “The Trip Around the Block is the Trip Around the World,” made of painted steel panels punched with holes.
The county has budgeted $1.75 million for the Pomona-born artist’s installation, said Lindsay Meyers, a spokesperson for the county. “A portion of all capital improvement funds for public buildings are legally required to be used for public art,” she said, pointing out that it was “self-funded” and did not rely on local tax dollars.
The overall parking garage project has an estimated cost of $400 million, which pencils out to roughly $73,000 per parking space. Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2026.
Ramírez Jonas is known for civic-minded public art. His 2023 installation, “Let Freedom Ring,” was placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where visitors rang a 600-pound bell to complete the final note of “My Country ’Tis of Thee” and share their own declarations of freedom. In New York’s Socrates Sculpture Park, his 2020 project “Eternal Flame” transformed five communal grills into a monument honoring the cultural role of cooking and storytelling across generations and geographies.
The art installation is part of a $1.3 billion expansion project referred to as SMForward. At a Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting in February 2024, the board discussed how its $11 million investment in public art at the airport would be the largest public art project in the county’s history.
Cindy Nichol, who leads the Department of Airports, said in a news release, “This installation will transform a parking structure into a place of inspiration and beauty.”
SMForward will also include six additional gates for Terminal B, along with a new pedestrian walkway and expanded concessions.
Terminal B last underwent a major expansion with the “Big Build,” a $1.1 billion project completed in 2011. That overhaul replaced the previous terminal and significantly upgraded passenger facilities.
This story was originally published October 7, 2025 at 12:42 PM.
