LIGHTS, camera ... Accrington! Hollywood's most famous landmark may be replicated in East Lancashire.
Massive letters spelling out the word 'Accrington' could be placed on top of the town's largest hill and be visible across East Lancashire, just as the Hollywood nameplate is visible from some of the most expensive addresses in Beverley Hills!
The design is among a shortlist of entries for the Panopticons sculptures project, a £1million scheme which will result in six new works of art being erected at prominent locations across East Lancashire.
Shortlists have been selected for three of the sites, including the site in Accrington, on The Coppice. There are five designs which have been short-listed and are on public display.
A panel of judges, headed by Blackburn-bred designer Wayne Hemingway, will meet next month to pick the winners. The other two sites are Wycoller Country Park and Corporation Park, Blackburn.
Each site has been chosen because it holds stunning views for visitors.
In a brief put forward by Mid Pennine Arts, the group co-ordinating the competition along with the Royal Institute of British Architects, artists are told to create something which can act as a shelter but is also eye-catching.
It is hoped the project -- funded by the Government-backed Regional Park scheme, set up to attract more visitors to the area through new initiatives -- will encourage more people to use the countryside and have the same economic impact on East Lancashire as the Angel of the North did in the North East.
Other designs for The Coppice site include a series of paving slabs and seats round snow poles, a covered walkway and a 'photo-engraved' concrete wall which would include seats.
One is designed to look like a spacecraft and be a 'sister' to Darwen's Jubilee Tower, which is described as a '19th century rocket.'
Four designs have been short-listed for the Corporation Park, all of which use the old battlements as their base. They vary from a walkway which would give visitors various views of Blackburn to a steel construction which would attract visitors at night using lasers.
Designs for Wycoller include a new 'hillock shelter' which would blend into the countryside and a series of boulders including one people can walk in.
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