{"id":837475,"date":"2026-06-01T19:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/837475\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T19:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:51:21","slug":"new-20-foot-sculpture-quietly-installed-at-tidelock-development-in-old-town-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/837475\/","title":{"rendered":"New 20-foot sculpture quietly installed at TideLock development in Old Town North"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alxnow.com\/category\/around-town\/\" class=\"block px-4 no-underline mb-4 text-sans text-md font-sans font-semibold text-posts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Around Town<br \/>\n\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tPublished June 1, 2026 at 2:45PM\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3822-600x450.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSculptor Christian Benefiel\u2019s art installation in Old Town North (staff photo by James Cullum)\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A new art installation near the Potomac River in Old Town North was quietly installed over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Sculptor\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/christianbenefiel.com\/home.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Christian Benefiel<\/a>, on Saturday, installed and put the finishing touches on Beacon 3, a commissioned piece at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alxnow.com\/2021\/11\/03\/retail-residential-and-music-venue-could-replace-north-old-town-office-park\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">TideLock<\/a> office-to-residential development (1033 N. Fairfax Street) in Old Town North. The piece was constructed over the last year from welded steel and resembles a nautical beacon and satellite with jet engine parts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was commissioned as an interpretation of the history of this area,\u201d Benefiel told ALXnow. \u201cThis is the third major beacon-type of work that I\u2019ve done, and this area is full of nautical, rail, air, and then space and satellite history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Benefiel, who teaches art at Shepherd University and lives in Centreville, Md., says the sculpture is 20 feet tall and weighs 1,100 pounds. He isn\u2019t sure whether there will be an official unveiling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got a crane out here and we dropped the first piece and got it set to the correct angle and basically lifted one piece after another in place,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a great relief to be finished, because it\u2019s not in my studio anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"pp-multiple-authors-boxes-ul author-ul-0\">\n<li class=\"pp-multiple-authors-boxes-li author_index_0 author_jamescullum has-avatar\">\n<p>                                                                                                                                                                                                                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/new-alxnow-logo-square-alx-only2.png\"  class=\"multiple_authors_guest_author_avatar avatar\" height=\"80\" width=\"80\"\/>                                                                                                                                                                                                            <\/p>\n<p>Reporter James Cullum has spent nearly 20 years covering Northern Virginia. He began working with ALXnow in 2020, and has covered every story under the sun for the publication, from investigative stories to features and photo galleries. His work includes coverage of national and international situations, as well as from the White House, Capitol, Pentagon, Supreme Court and State Department. He&#8217;s covered protests and riots throughout the U.S. (including the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol), in addition to earthquake-ridden Haiti, Western Sahara in North Africa and war-torn South Sudan. He has photographed presidents and other world leaders, celebrities and famous musicians, and excels under pressure.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around Town Published June 1, 2026 at 2:45PM Sculptor Christian Benefiel\u2019s art installation in Old Town North (staff&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":837476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[60102,1037,648,1032,1033,2556,171,50232,343202,243040,1038,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-837475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-around-town","tag-art","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-development","tag-entertainment","tag-office-conversion","tag-old-town-north","tag-potomac-river","tag-sculpture","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116676597507555680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}