Architect Mikyoung Kim is working on a public art project at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center that would be an “urban oasis” in an overbuilt downtown.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — Pretty and petite, Mikyoung Kim doesn’t look much like an artistic troublemaker. Nor is there anything particularly subversive about Kim’s background: born and raised in Hartford, Conn., she passed up a career as a classical pianist to pursue an architectural degree at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

Now 41, she runs an award-winning architectural firm, Mikyoung Kim Design of Brookline Mass., while teaching full-time at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Still, looks can be deceiving.

In fact, since winning a $420,000 grant to create a public art project at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, Kim has been dragged into a long-simmering debate over the state’s One Percent for Public Art law, a 1988 statute that sets aside a fraction of the cost of state building projects for public art.

On one side are lawmakers who question whether the state can continue funding public art, especially at a time when other state-run programs, from education to health care, are under siege. They also point to the esoteric nature of some of the artworks, including a so-called “sound installation” at the Kent County Courthouse designed to mimic the sound of chirping birds.

The law’s supporters, on the other hand, point to the benefits that public art can bring. To them, banners, murals, sculptures and other forms of public art aren’t just extraneous frills. Instead, they help keep institutions such as airports and courthouses from feeling, well, institutional.

“Ultimately, it’s a question of what kind of community you want to live in,” Kim explained recently over a cup of coffee. “Do you want to live in a place that’s filled with drab cookie-cutter buildings whose only virtue is that they’re cheap to build? Or do you want to live in a place that aspires to something more — more human, more inviting, even more beautiful? That’s the dilemma.”

Kim said she understood why some people might question the need for public art, especially during tough economic times. “I think it’s a natural tendency to say ‘Hey, why are we spending money on art when we’re cutting back in other areas?’ But you really have to look at the long term. In the long run, it’s really the smart thing to do. Investing in public art is a way of investing in the future.”

Kim, who’s garnered a number of major awards for her work as both an artist and architect, said she approached the Dunkin’ Donuts Center project in a similar spirit.

Though she now lives outside Boston, Kim spent nearly five years in the Rhode Island capital, walking its streets and getting to know its buildings and public spaces. That experience, in turn, helped shape the Dunkin’ Donuts project, which calls for a small park — Kim calls it an “urban oasis” — to be built on the west side of the Dunk, facing the newly refurbished Hilton Hotel.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Providence, and I think I know the city pretty well,” Kim said. “It’s a beautiful city, but there are some places, especially on the fringes of downtown, that are starting to feel a little overbuilt. These places — and I think the area around the Dunk, which has been really built up in recent years, is one of them — could definitely use some softening up.”

Dubbed The Horizon Garden, Kim’s plan would transform the Dunk’s southwest corner into a small-scale sculpture park, complete with pedestrian-friendly benches and walkways and other landscaping features. At its center, the park would feature a sculpture, also designed by Kim, consisting of a perforated stainless steel screen dotted with thousands of button-size pieces of recycled glass.

During the day, a lighting element underneath the screen would cause these tiny glass elements would glow red and orange, while at night the color scheme would change to blue. According to Kim, the sculpture serves a dual purpose — providing a striking centerpiece for the park, while bringing some much-needed light to an area that is shaded for much of the day.

“Basically, we took the project’s biggest challenge, which was to bring light to this very sheltered, shaded area, and turned it into a positive element,” Kim said.

But how will The Horizon Garden fare over time? And how well will it stand up to sometimes rowdy crowds that pour out of the Dunk following concerts and sporting events?

“Those are certainly legitimate concerns,” said Randall Rosenbaum, executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA). “For the most part, this isn’t a vandalism-prone area. But obviously with any project like this there are maintenance issues involved.”

Still, Rosenbaum, whose agency oversees the state’s One Percent for Art program, thinks Kim’s sculpture park will do just fine. The reason: during the selection process, artists are required to submit detailed plans regarding materials, construction budgets and maintenance costs. (Kim, for example, plans to use marine-grade stainless steel for her sculptural centerpiece. She also hopes to deter would-be vandals by giving the surface a brushed finish that should make graffiti-removal easier.)

Interestingly, the man who will inherit the role of caretaker for The Horizon Garden doesn’t seem particularly worried about the project’s long-term viability.

“Overall, I think they’ve done a very good job of balancing both the artistic and practical issues,” said James McCarvill, executive director of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority, which manages the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. “Every time something came up — whether it was a concern about vandalism or debris removal or skateboarding — they were able to devise a solution.”

In fact, McCarvill is looking forward to the construction phase of the Horizon Garden project, which is scheduled to take place in the summer or fall of 2010. “I think it’s a great opportunity to enhance that side of the building,” he said. “It’s basically a new gateway to the arena.”

Such comments may explain why the Horizon Garden hasn’t met the kind of opposition that has greeted several other public art projects. Perhaps the most notorious was the so-called “cloud machine” — a high-tech fountain that was supposed to send clouds of mist floating through the main terminal at T.F. Green State Airport. Part of a flurry of public art projects that surfaced during the mid-1990s, the cloud machine was eventually grounded amid concerns over cost and maintenance.

More recently, critics have pounced on another public art project — the so-called “bird machine” installed at Kent County Courthouse in 2007. Designed by California sound artist Bill Fontana, Natural Songlines (the work’s actual title) sends bird-like chirps and trills through speakers in the courthouse’s public spaces.

“I think it’s just crazy,” said Leonidas “Lou” Raptakis, a Coventry Democrat who has led a move to amend the state’s One Percent for Art legislation. “I’ve heard from people who are actually afraid to go in the courthouse. They think they’re in the Hitchcock move The Birds.”

Spurred on by the state’s budget crisis, Raptakis and other legislators have proposed several changes to the way Rhode Island handles public art. Among other things, they favor a strict 1-percent cap on all public art projects. (Under the current law, some art projects can exceed 1 percent of the total construction cost.) Other changes include earmarking 25 percent of the cost of public art projects for community arts groups and increasing oversight on the selection process for public art.

Raptakis says a bill mandating the changes could be introduced in the General Assembly as early as Tuesday. “We’re very close, meaning not more than a day or two,” he said.

Yet even Raptakis has nothing bad to say about Kim’s Horizon Garden.

“As part of our due diligence, we looked at all the art projects that were in the pipeline,” Raptakis said. “And I don’t think we really had a problem with any of them. Some actually sounded pretty interesting.”

Kim, meanwhile, is grateful for the chance to work in her former hometown. Though her firm, Mikyoung Kim Design, has designed parks, plazas and other public spaces across the country, the Horizon Garden will be her first significant commission in the Ocean State.

“I think what really attracted me to the project was the chance to combine art and landscape,” she said. “As an architect who’s also an artist, that’s something that really appealed to me.”

bvansicl@projo.com