Four concrete pillars stand in the Fox River between West Dundee and East Dundee, spaced across the current like stepping stones nobody uses. For years they anchored ice booms, the cable-strung equipment river crews once used to keep floating winter ice from piling up against the banks. The booms are long gone. The pillars stayed, doing nothing in particular, which is about to change.
This fall, four sculptures go up on those pillars. They're part of a public art initiative called Art of the Fox, run by The Conservation Foundation, and the detail that makes this worth watching isn't the art itself. It's who's paying for it. West Dundee and East Dundee, two villages that share a bridge and a river but almost nothing else administratively, are splitting the cost of purchasing and maintaining these four pieces equally.
Two Villages, Two Downtowns, One River Between Them
West Dundee and East Dundee look like one place from a car window. They share a name, a bridge, and a shoreline. They do not share a village hall, a comprehensive plan, or a riverfront strategy. West Dundee runs its own Downtown Improvements Project, now in its third construction stage, built around a 2015 downtown plan from Hitchcock Design Group. East Dundee adopted its own separate Riverfront Master Plan in April 2024, developed by the same design firm but as an entirely independent document with its own goals for the Haeger Pottery property and William Bartel's Park.
The dining scene draws the same line. Woodfire, Bamboozels, and Emmett's Brewing Company sit on the West Dundee side of Main Street. Mockingbird Bar + Garden and the newer Tequila Val's, which opened inside the renovated former Anvil Club building, belong to East Dundee. Even the restaurant listings on delivery apps sort businesses by which side of the water they're on. Two villages, two downtowns, one river running through the middle that neither one fully owns.
Which is what makes this sculpture project unusual. The four pieces are being treated as a single submission with West Dundee named as co-applicant, and Andy Sauder, an East Dundee village trustee and co-chair of its Arts Council, described the idea behind putting them on the river itself.
"Some of the best art happens outdoors, where the setting becomes part of the work," Sauder said.
What's Actually Confirmed, and When
The sculptures center on local wildlife and the Fox River, and they'll go up on the old ice boom pillars later this fall. That's the confirmed part. The exact installation date is not yet set, and neither is a finalized unveiling.
What is scheduled is a Launch Event and Art Walk on October 10, 2026, from 2 to 5 p.m., free and open to the public. It marks East Dundee's formal entry into the Art of the Fox program, which also includes three new murals on Village Hall, buildings along the Fox River Trail, and East Dundee's new downtown parking garage. The river sculptures are the piece of that program West Dundee helped fund.
Element | Location | Villages Involved | Status as of late September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
Four wildlife sculptures | Old ice boom pillars, Fox River | West Dundee and East Dundee, jointly purchased | Installation expected later this fall, exact date not set |
Three murals | Village Hall, Fox River Trail buildings, new parking garage | East Dundee | Part of the same Art of the Fox submission |
Launch Event and Art Walk | East Dundee | East Dundee, celebrating program entry | Confirmed for October 10, 2026, 2 to 5 p.m., free |
The Corridor These Pillars Sit Inside
The pillars aren't isolated. They sit at the edge of a downtown corridor that's been quietly turning over storefronts for close to a decade. West Dundee's own development page reads almost like a business directory: Bamboozels moved into a renovated space on West Main, RocHaus became an intimate live music venue nearby, Boxwood Home & Cabinetry Company opened its doors, and 124 Lofts brought short-term rental units above street level. A former bowling alley at 101 South First was rebuilt into Around the Corner Candy, Shine Salon & Dry Bar, and a law office. Motl Accounting and Payroll Vault took over another storefront. The Half Full Nest Vintage Market moved into a fourth.
Woodfire, the Main Street pizzeria that picked up the Chicago Tribune's 2026 Pizza of the Year award, sits inside that same run of renovated buildings. So does Emmett's Brewing Company, which completed its own interior renovation in recent years. None of this happened because of the sculptures. It's the backdrop the sculptures are landing in, a downtown that's already been remodeling itself building by building since the Village removed an empty Ace Hardware store in 2017 and replaced it with public parking.
Heritage Fest ran through this same stretch of downtown, South Second Street, and the Riverwalk just last week, September 18 through 20. The festival is annual and temporary. The storefront turnover and the river sculptures are not. They're the difference between a weekend and a decade.
The Best View on the River Is Currently Empty
One address complicates the story of steady momentum. At 98 West Main Street, the three-level space that used to hold Blueroot sat on the market as of a January 2026 report from Shaw Local, listed for $1.25 million. The building seats up to 325 diners, has a full kitchen, a basement, and a balcony that looks straight out over the Fox River, arguably the best water view any restaurant space in West Dundee has ever had. As of that reporting, no new tenant had been announced.
It's a useful contrast. Public investment along this stretch of river is moving forward with confirmed dates and a joint funding agreement between two villages. Private investment in the single best-positioned commercial space on that same stretch was, as of early this year, still waiting on someone to take the next step. Both things are true about the same three or four blocks at the same time.
Where to Actually See This Happen
The Riverwalk runs along the Fox River between Main and 6th Streets on the West Dundee side, with a walking bridge connecting a path in South End Park to the broader Fox River Trail, part of the 40-mile bike trail that runs the length of the river valley. The ice boom pillars sit within that same corridor, visible from the downtown side of the water.
A few practical notes if you want to watch this unfold rather than just read about it later:
- The pillars are visible from the Riverwalk path on the West Dundee side, roughly between Main Street and the pedestrian bridge near South End Park.
- Installation timing has not been announced beyond "later this fall." Checking back in October and November is the only way to catch it as it happens.
- The October 10 Launch Event and Art Walk runs 2 to 5 p.m. in East Dundee and is free. It covers the murals and the broader Art of the Fox program, not just the river sculptures, but it's the clearest public gathering tied to this project so far.
- Woodfire and Emmett's Brewing Company both sit within a short walk of the river if you want to make an afternoon of it around the launch event.
The pillars have been standing in that river doing nothing for longer than most current residents have lived here. What changes this fall isn't just that they'll finally hold something. It's that two villages that normally plan, budget, and build independently agreed to put something there together.
Tamara O'Connor and her team keep track of these kinds of changes across the Fox Valley, not because a sculpture on a river pillar moves a home value, but because knowing what's actually happening in a place, block by block, is the same skill either way. If you're curious about what else is shifting along the Fox River corridor this fall, reach out anytime.
