The answers in Raleigh, where a plaza design by Jaume Plensa was all but scuttled last week, start with aesthetics and engineering. But there's a deeper reason for the city's inability to come to terms with Plensa's vision for Fayetteville Street: a historic failure to link the elements that create successful public art.

"Raleigh finds itself in this very awkward place -- where community voice is disconnected from curatorial voice is disconnected from political voice is disconnected from funding voice," said Janet Kagan of Chapel Hill, a member of the governing board of the national Public Art Network.

The fate of Plensa's "City Square" now rests with a volunteer panel charged with finding ways to address city officials' concerns. Whether built or abandoned, "City Square" might become the project that teaches the city what not to do if it wants public art.

Plensa's design -- with water, light, grass and granite -- is all about focusing energy. Behind the scenes, the key players were running in different directions.

Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon pledged $2.5 million for the plaza on downtown's main street to commemorate the 50th anniversary of WRAL. But he was not notified when the design ran into trouble. Nor was N.C. Museum of Art Director Larry Wheeler, who had chosen Plensa and worked on the project. Plensa himself received an e-mail notice only through his dealer, Paul Gray.

The concerns were raised by City Manager Russell Allen and Assistant City Manager Dan Howe the week after Fayetteville Street reopened to vehicle traffic after 30 years as a pedestrian mall. They realized that the road Plensa designed, which borders the grassy plaza on which the project centers, probably wouldn't work for buses needing to get to a roundabout for the new Marriott hotel.

More critically, Allen thought that the design would block the view down Fayetteville Street, which City Council members fiercely want to protect.

Rather than kill the project outright, the council voted Tuesday to give the Raleigh Arts Commission 45 days to find a resolution.

"I think it's so good that we are actually getting to have a say," said Carole Anders, chairwoman of the Arts Commission's public art panel.

Until now, the commission has had no formal role with the Plensa design, which has been discussed since October. The citizens panel has had little influence for the past several years and has been without an executive director since June 9. Anders appreciates how fragile the "City Square" project is.

"If we hit another rock wall, that's the end of it," she said.

Everyone has a stake

Public art is notoriously complex, usually requiring feats of engineering and aesthetics, if not also planning and urban design. Everyone from nearby business owners to taxpayers has a stake. The challenge is giving everyone a say without nitpicking a project to death.

"What tangles public art the most and trips it up is how it is implemented," said Kagan, who also sits on Chapel Hill's Public Arts Commission. "Raleigh is not unique. Dozens of [cities] face that same complexity."

It has taken more than a decade for Raleigh to rehabilitate the very idea of public art. In the 1990s, when the Time + Light Tower was installed on Capital Boulevard and held up as a model of wasteful spending, public art seemed to be a lost cause.

In 2001, the Arts Commission staged the Raleigh Red Wolf Ramble, with local artists painting statues of wolves that were scattered around town.

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