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The Ramble proved enormously popular, and other successes have followed. There are storefront displays downtown, including a show of 14 local artists lining Fayetteville Street this month. In Chavis Park the city installed a sculpture by Carrboro artist Mike Roig honoring the Tuskegee airmen.

But these projects -- particularly "critter parades," as people in the art world describe projects such as the wolf ramble -- tend to be on the safe side. And they have taught the city little when it comes to navigating conflict.

When controversy hits, City Council members often second-guess the Arts Commission, whose members they appoint. In 2003, the council overrode the arts commission's recommendation that a fallen firefighters memorial should go somewhere other than Nash Square across from City Hall.

And this year, the council indefinitely postponed a decision about privately funded, glass-topped terra-cotta torchieres for Fayetteville Street. Elizabeth Purrington, an Arts Commission member, is meeting with convention center officials about having them take the torchieres.

Meanwhile, Cork Marcheschi of San Francisco, one of two artists for the torchieres, said last week that no one had told him that his project was still viable. "I haven't heard from anyone pretty much about anything," he said.

In 30 years as a professional artist, he said, he has hit a major roadblock with a city project once -- Raleigh in 2006.

"A lot of the people who are giving us input know nothing about art. It's much like people meeting with a surgeon before having something removed and saying, 'I want it done this way,' " Marcheschi said. "Artists aren't people who are out to pull the wool over people's eyes. We do this as a job."

The Plensa project is even more complex because it involves not a static object, such as a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh, but a space for people to use. It's the difference between buying a vase for a table and remodeling the entire dining room.

"It's not decoration," Wheeler said. "It defines the place, creates all the beauty and energy. ... If it had been a 'piece' of art, I don't think we would have had this problem."

Plensa has said through his dealer, Gray, that he would not comment on specific design changes but has some preferences, such as not running a two-lane street straight through the plaza. The arts commission's public art panel has voted to ask him to include the straight street in the design.

If Raleigh hopes to make a bold artistic statement, city leaders can expect screeching protests. That is inevitable with a cutting-edge, conceptual work, public art workers say, and it must be handled delicately.

"The repercussions that this can have is turning off people to public art in general," said Sarah Gay, director of the Art in Public Places program for Jacksonville, Fla., a midsize Southern city where Plensa has a well-received installation.

In Raleigh, the Plensa proposal was trotted before several public committees, with generally enthusiastic responses. Neighborhood groups were invited to comment. But the formula for public input is tricky, and Raleigh does not seem to have the right recipe yet.

"There are all the usual curmudgeons," Howe said. "Those people are not going to like anything. What you need to get is people -- that are genuinely open -- excited about it."

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