The Color of Palo Alto is … up for a public vote?

The Color of Palo Alto is green, naturally. But is it a bright, vibrant green? A refined, husky green? And not to confuse things, but it could also be a slate blue, a charcoal gray, navyish blue or even olive.

In true Samuel Yates fashion, The Color of Palo Alto – unveiled Tuesday after seven years – is complicated and may require a citywide vote to decide.

And as a public art project, conceived by the 34-year-old artist in response to a request by the city’s Public Arts Commission, the final color will be selected by a public vote cast at the project’s Web site, www.thecolorofpaloalto.com.

Before a crowd that was younger and hipper than City Council chambers’ regulars, Yates shared the tale of The Color of Palo Alto, which art critic Glen Helfand introduced as “epic” and “monumentally American.”

“It seems most of us are a few steps behind Sam Yates,” Helfand said.

At the core of the massive undertaking is 22,339 digital photographs Yates took of every parcel in the city and the structure on it. From those photos, thanks to computer wizardry by Yates’ colleague Eli Schleifer, Yates calculated the average hue (its mean, median and mode for mathematicians) of each property.

Armed with thousands of colors-as-numbers, most anything, and Yates means anything, is possible.

“There’s a million things we can do with this data,” Yates said.

Later he reassured the audience: “There is a point. It’s too much detail, I know.”

The average color of a street or neighborhood can be calculated then purchased as paint, a T-shirt or combined into plaid. And because Yates took the photographs alphabetically by street, starting at the beginning of 2005, the colors of seasons, months, days, or letters are all accessible.

And with letters comes spelling – the colors of “R-Y-A-N,” for example – and the numbers could become music.

Mayor Larry Klein and Arts & Sciences Director Linda Craighead deemed Yates a “genius,” thanking him for sharing his talents with the community.

“Simply put, Sam, this exceeded all of everyone’s expectations on the Art Commission.” former Commissioner David Negrin, who had invited Yates to apply for the assignment, said of the work.

Yates began with the assignment to create a six-month sculpture installation in front of City Hall for $10,000.

But for the Sacramento-born artist – who once created the world’s tallest file cabinet, transferred the soil from a gravesite into a museum and embedded the ashes of an aspiring painter in a painting – a sculpture just wouldn’t do.

He wanted to involve all Palo Altans – it is public art – so he decided to photograph each property, Yates said.

But the project would also be environmentally friendly, ensuring The Color of Palo Alto would embody greenness, even if it emerged as blue or yellow.

The city investment ultimately grew to $35,000, Craighead has said. In addition, Hewlett-Packard Company in 2005 donated $40,000 plus equipment to print and install the thousands of photos on City Hall, which are transparent so people can still see out from their offices. The grant will cover costs of removal after six months.

“It’s a wonderful, creative art project, and we’re always happy to support innovative uses of HP technology, especially those we think will provide a community benefit,” City Council member Sid Espinosa, who also is H-P’s director of philanthropy, said earlier of the donation.

With the slim budget, Yates acquired an electric motor scooter, GPS (global positioning system) equipment and built a solar and wind-powered sculpture/garage outside City Hall, where he worked when he wasn’t out taking pictures. (See www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=7517 for additional details on the project and Yates.)

Along the way, Yates became a vegan, slashing his cholesterol and ensuring the project – and its creator – did as little harm to the environment as possible.

For much of the time, Yates lived in his car or with host families, occasionally visiting his wife in southern California.

The project grew to include a display of all of the photographs, now affixed to the front of City Hall.

Although Yates’ full-time involvement is ending, the public life of The Color of Palo Alto is just getting started, Yates said.

He hopes that Palo Altans will vote and even campaign for a color, mix-up some paint at Palo Alto Hardware and explore and use the project’s detailed Web site.

Yates didn’t hint at his plans for the future Tuesday, admitting only his immersion in The Color of Palo Alto has become “unsustainable.”

But with worldwide interest and a data-packed Web site, Yates is confident his vision will continue.

• VIDEO: Unveiling The Color of Palo Alto

• VIDEO: Art critic Glen Helfand talks about The Color of Palo Alto