Georgetown Transformers

Professor Newton Howard has done an impressive array of work in the worlds of cognitive science and artificial intelligence. To laypeople, however, he is perhaps best known for the statues of Transformers Optimus Prime and Bumblebee standing outside his house less than a block from Georgetown University.

They convey how machines can be a friend to humans, just as the Autobots are in the Transformers franchise. Howard commissioned them as part of a series of such sculptures made of recycled automobile and motorcycle parts. Since being installed in January 2021, they have become a hit with tourists and children.

Yet the reception of the Transformers statues by local neighbors and officials has been decidedly different. Many complained that the sculptures were drawing unwanted visitors to the area and clashed with its historic character. Because the Transformers are visible from the street, Howard has had to seek the approval of multiple commissions and courts for a public art project in the United States' first designated historic district. Among many others, Transformers voice actors Peter Cullen and Dan Gilvezan have spoken out in the statues' defense to have them remain.