Downtown Mesa’s lampposts, benches and buildings want to talk to you

PHOENIX — Lampposts, benches and buildings are usually not the best to strike up conversations, but in downtown Mesa they are, thanks to the Hello Lamp Post project.

“This project invites you to have conversations with street furniture via text message,” said Casey Blake, director of public relations at the Mesa Arts Center.

Visitors can send text messages to any of the 32 objects participating in the project throughout downtown Mesa.

To begin, look for an object with a yellow dot. It will have instructions on how to text a code to begin the conversation.

The participating objects included various sculptures, art pieces, and buildings. It also included the dinosaur that sits in front of the Arizona Museum of Natural History.

The objects will provide visitors with information about themselves. They will also ask visitors several questions, including what they like best about downtown Mesa, what they would like to see more of and what’s important to them.

“It’s meant for people to have fun with it and maybe discover some things in downtown Mesa that they haven’t been aware of before,” Blake said. “It’s also to help us as we look to the future and plan to provide programs and services to the community.”

Mesa was the second city in the United States to use the Hello Lamp Post project.

Austin, Texas, was the first to use it in 2015.

The project was launched by PAN Studios in London five years ago and has since been used in various cities around the world.

The project will be available in Mesa through April 16. A map showing where the participating objects were located is available online.

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