For many people, airports can be unsettling, a swirl of activity in a sometimes unfamiliar setting. That's why the airport has placed an emphasis on how art in public spaces can make the unfamiliar more familiar, the uncomfortable more comfortable.

"Art not only enhances the customer's experience," says Tiffany Wai-Ying Beres, the airport's Manager of Arts and Customer Experience, "it helps reduce stress. It gives them opportunities to engage in ways that you don't normally get. It helps create landmarks for people as they move from one place to another."

Art in public spaces certainly isn't new in San Diego. But at the airport, art is part of a long-standing ethos -- a philosophy that's deeply rooted in community and designed to foster and nurture connection.

The art program, Beres says, enriches "the airport environment through memorable and thoughtful programming."

In the last few years, that commitment to the arts has been front and center, especially in the countless live performances, activations and exhibitions at Terminal 2.

At the new $3.8 billion Terminal 1, that promise continues to be realized in the form of six commissioned works of art, a new art gallery and several pieces from the old Terminal 1 finding more prominent homes in the state-of-the-art space.

Here are 9 things you need to know about art at San Diego International Airport's new Terminal 1.

There, surrounded by light and framed by light-colored materials, "Sandcast" looks almost regal, like a long-reigning queen looking down at her subjects.

Made of plaster and fiberglass with a textured sand finish, the piece is an homage to "San Diego's pivotal role in aviation history in the form of a classical bas-relief sculpture."

In the work, Faust "captures key milestones in the region's aeronautical innovation -- from the birth of naval aviation at North Island in 1911, to the construction of the Spirit of St. Louis by Ryan Aeronautical in 1927, to the city's wartime aircraft production boom and later contributions to space exploration through the Atlas rocket program," according to the airport.

"It has been moved around the airport several times," Beres says, "but most recently, it was located in the baggage claim area of Old Terminal 1 -- on the ground level in this really dimly lit area, gathering a bit of dust. We spent a lot of time cleaning and conserving this work and moving it here."

Nine separate segments comprise the 18-by-11-foot mural, with each piece clocking in at 225 pounds.

"In grand total, that is like an elephant hanging on the wall," Beres says with a laugh. "So as you can imagine, the architects and the design team had to come up with a sophisticated pulley system and scaffolding to hoist each of those pieces up. It was quite an undertaking."

To do that, they turned to James Carpenter, a world-renowned architect, designer and artist.

"He is one of the world's best experts on the intersection of the built environment and light," Beres says of the American-born Carpenter, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a MacArthur Fellow.

Carpenter, who was in town Sept. 11 for an art-specific media tour of the new Terminal 1, says he designed "Luminous Wave Façade" with one goal in mind: "Here we are: huge space, San Diego, loads of daylight, too much daylight, in fact. How do we manage to bring the light level down without going to reflective glass, without going to dark glass, without doing any of these things ... but keep it as clear and as open as possible?"

His "Luminous Wave Façade" is made of curved composite glass and metals that, as the airport describes it, "doubles as the main wall of the terminal's ticketing hall."

The piece -- 800 feet in length and 33 feet in height -- allows just enough light without making the space seem too stark.

The abundance of sunshine "led us to thinking about how do we reject a lot of the light that comes from the Southwest? We have a lot of tense light in the late afternoon," Carpenter says.

As a result of his design, light and shadow engage in a playful dance that, as one of the Gensler designers points out, makes the main hall evolve throughout the day as sunlight shifts.

Her inspiration? The rarest pine species in the United States: the Torrey Pine, found in abundance along the San Diego coastline.

"These resilient trees are shaped over time by relentless ocean winds, their sculptural branches bending away from Pacific storms," the airport says. "Historically, they've held significance for the region's Indigenous people, including the Kumeyaay, who used the pine nuts for food, the long needles for weaving, and the sap as adhesive. Today, the Torrey Pine remains a powerful symbol of endurance and adaptation."

"This was made in New York," Beres says of the artwork, called "Torrey Pines." "It was shipped here in crates, and because it's gold-plated, everyone had to touch it using gloves so as not to upset the varnish. But what's truly spectacular about this work is you look at it from this side, you see one thing. When you look at it from another side, it completely changes."

The best vantage point? Just past the security area. Once you've gone through TSA, look back and watch as the Torrey Pines come into focus.

Ellingson's artistic endeavors sit at the intersection of the digital world and the man-made, and the six columns proved to be the perfect canvas for her latest piece. In this case, the canvas is covered in nearly a million pieces of Mexican-made smalti glass -- opaque hand-cut mosaic glass that traces its roots to the Byzantine era.

"She works in this vocabulary of abstract forms, which are all digitally manipulated from her computer, and then she translates them into other materials that are handwrought," Beres says.

The airport, in its description of "A Day in the Sun," says: "These six vibrant mosaic columns celebrate the beauty of San Diego's coastal environment. Composed of nearly one million hand-set glass tiles, the columns shimmer with patterns inspired by the stunning transition from sunrise to sunset along the Pacific shoreline. The colorful glass extends into the terrazzo floor, evoking the sparkling reflection of sunlight on wet sand."

"Ellingson ... uses these columns to bridge the digital and physical worlds. Her abstract designs incorporate 'codes' -- computer-based patterns translated into the ancient craft of mosaic, each composition meticulously laid by hand, one tile at a time."

"Together, these fixtures form a luminous, colorful canopy -- a dazzling chandelier that can also synchronize with music," according to the airport. "Known for his large-scale light installations, Redl transforms the terminal into a vibrant, immersive environment through ever-changing sequences of color, intensity and pattern. ... The fixtures are formed in patterns of double triangles, inspired by traditional basketry motifs of Indigenous tribes native to this region, including the Luiseño, Cahuilla, Cupeño, Kumeyaay and Northern Diegueño peoples. By merging cultural heritage with digital innovation, the artwork invites us to reflect on tradition, continuity and transformation."

The massive bird-like pieces -- measuring at 20 feet and 40 feet tall -- are designed to celebrate "San Diego's history, its landscape and sky above." In describing the work, the airport says: "Influenced by Indigenous, colonial, and immigrant stories, it explores birds as symbols of transcendence, rebirth and freedom across cultures."

The North Carolina-born Hood, now the creative director of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, loves to be at the intersection of landscape and urbanism, and his "Migrations," near the parking structure outside Terminal 1, fits the bill perfectly -- pardon the pun.

Hood admits that using birds to symbolize migration seemed like "a no-brainer," but through the use of form and materials -- steel, chain-link fence and blackened wood -- he hoped to create a multilayered work of art, open to a myriad of interpretations.

Indeed, inside the large oculi, one can see symbols of flight created by local children -- from planes and bumblebees to birds and butterflies. The patterns -- inspired by the Mexican decorative craft of papel picado (perforated paper) -- represent the "joy and wonder of flying."

"All these metaphorical connections," says the 2019 MacArthur fellow, "are creating this kind of multidimensional kind of piece, and I guess where I am artistically now, is using conceptual kind of art to really talk about social issues and working through that."

The two pieces, fabricated in Indianapolis, are so big the airport had to acquire special permits to transport them from Indiana to California on a flatbed truck.

"Yes, that was an adventure," Beres says.

For San Diego's Terminal 1, the Canton, N.Y.-born Mazzotta doesn't disappoint with "RISE," a larger-than-life kinetic sculpture inspired by the purple-striped jellyfish found off the coast of San Diego.

The piece -- composed of hot-pink-painted steel and polycarbonate chain mail -- can be found curbside at the arrivals level of Terminal 1, and it "celebrates our connection to the coastal environment and inspires us to protect and preserve it for generations to come," the airport says.

Thematically, the use of the purple-striped jellyfish is a clever exercise in creating a community connection, a sense of place. But Mazzotta doesn't stop there. The pink and orange hues are reminiscent of San Diego's glorious sunsets.

In "RISE," his goal was to bring together the vibrancy of the jellyfish's natural colors and the warm tones of a San Diego sunset -- all at a grand scale. The sculpture's grandeur takes on a different kind of splendor at night -- lights from below and from within render the piece with a San Diego-inspired glow.

"Every time I come here, I always end my day by sitting at the ocean," says Mazzota, whose parents, brother and sister all live in San Diego. "I think a lot of people do -- to see the sunsets and watch all the clouds."

The 2009 piece -- made of glass, synthetic resin, paint, aluminum and programmed LED lights -- "is a metaphorical tapestry connecting global movement to the ancient craft of weaving," the airport says. "This sculptural piece represents lines of latitude and longitude as interlaced threads, symbolizing the paths people travel. A single red mark signifies San Diego's place on the map and references an intentional flaw -- a spiritual portal in some Indigenous weaving traditions."

The artwork features horizontal and vertical threads, representing latitude and longitude, and together, they represent 24 global time zones, with each zone lit by a 24-hour timer.

"It was designed thoughtfully to be a multipurpose space," he says. "So we can also utilize performing arts in here as well as have workshops with local artists. One of my favorite things about the temporary exhibition program is it's the primary way that we bring in local artists ... and make sure that we're representing them and their voices."

The inaugural exhibit, titled "Snapshot San Diego," is meant to be a visual journey showcasing and celebrating the region's "vibrant cultures, histories and artistic expressions." Highlighted in the exhibit are eight local San Diego institutions, including the Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum, Comic-Con Museum, Visions Museum of Textile Art, Ilan-Lael Foundation and the Misti Washington Gourd & Basket Guild. The exhibit will run for two years, with a new group lined up for the second year.

One of the goals for the space was to "think about the identity of San Diego, what makes San Diego special and how we could celebrate that."