Pensacola is known for its unique ability to put on a show, but this fall, one of downtown’s most recognizable buildings is getting a transformation that will probably make anyone walking down the street stop mid-stride.

As part of Foo Foo Festival, Friends of Downtown will bring Lightspill to the Artel Gallery. From October 20 through November 9—and potentially even longer into the fall, the large-scale temporary installation will send hundreds of mirrored spheres cascading down the face of the historic building, creating the illusion that a pool of liquid metal has spilled over the roof and broken apart into reflective droplets.

It’s part sculpture, part spectacle, and almost impossible to miss, explains Walker Wilson of Friends of Downtown. “It’s a project we saw something similar to, but we wanted our version to take the idea somewhere new. We really spent time figuring out how to make it bigger and different specifically for Pensacola.”

The effect of the installation is somewhere between Chicago’s famous Bean and the silvery droplets of mercury from a broken old-school thermometer, with the reflective spheres appearing to pour from the top of the three-story building.

The location is part of the point: Artel Gallery sits on Palafox Street in a historic former government building with a white stone exterior, massive columns, and broad front steps. It’s already a striking piece of downtown architecture, and Lightspill is designed to make it a landmark all over again. “We really wanted to bring public art back to the heart of Palafox,” Wilson says. “The building is already so beautiful—it’s going to be really hard for anyone to miss.”

The timing of the installation is intentional, too. The city recently completed an $11 million renovation and streetscape project along Palafox and the heart of downtown, and LIghtspill offers another reason for locals and visitors alike to experience that investment firsthand. “We really wanted to showcase this new project the city did and the investment in infrastructure of downtown,” Wilson adds. “It’s a great reason to bring people down to enjoy the area.”

Making downtown something to be experienced—not just an area to pass through—has been at the heart of Friends of Downtown’s public art projects for years, especially during Foo Foo Festival. There was Umbrella Sky, which turned the street into a canopy of colorful umbrelllas. Bubble Alley brought suspended bursts of color overhead. Mosaic Sky transformed a park with transparent colored tiles, while Fire and Ice stretched red and blue streamers across a block and a half, creating the illusion of movement in the wind. Last year, Friends of Downtown worked with Tomislav Topic, a Berlin-based artist, on Afterburn, an installation inspired by the smoke trails left behind when the Blue Angels streak across the Gulf Coast sky.

Lightspill continues that tradition, but with a little more shine. “We think Foo Foo Festival is a great introduction and gives a lot of organizations in town the opportunity to showcase what they do all year long,” Wilson says. “We want the art installation to be a front door to the festival itself. Visitors can’t miss the art installation, and while there checking it out can scan a QR code and discover what else is happening during Foo Foo and realize there’s an entire citywide celebration just waiting to be explored.”