Urban Infill: Colorful Tile Mosaics Patch Potholed Streets

In a city with over a half-million open potholes, one artist is helping address the problem and raising awareness by installing his own creative patches, filling them piece by piece with colorful tiles.

pothole with phone digits

pothole artist bachor studio

Jim Bachor has been making mosaics for years, and has turned his craft toward the pressing and persistent problem of dangerous potholes in the Chicago area, particularly bad after an especially cold winter.

pothole with hotline number

pothole fixed in context

Variations on the colors and overall design of the Chicago city flag frame text and digits, from self-titled ones (reading simply ‘POTHOLE’) to phone numbers of local car repair shops or individual identification strings.

pothole mosaic tile art

pothole patched city street

At dozens of dollars per fix, the work itself is hard to scale but does bring the broader problem to the attention of passers by, as well as the city itself as the project makes its way into the media.