Bridges - and Public Art - Update

A few years back, before a redo of Business 40 was in the conversation, I wrote a piece about how Winston-Salem needed a signature structure to help brand itself and make it a place so distinctive that people would want to come and see. This was a result of a brainstorming session held by the Winston-Salem Visitor Center - a group which needs community support now more than ever. I suggested a national contest for a signature bridge design and Photoshopped a Sergio Calatrava bridge right in front of an artist's rendering of the planned downtown research park as a way to say "new," "cool," "groovy," or whatever positive you wanted to say. Mainly you just would want to see the thing (click on the small image for a bigger one to better see the "harp string" cables).

This summer, I stepped away from a few meetings of the Arts Council's Public Art and Design committee and this blog - a family member's illness and an unexpected denouement to my role on the local elections board kept me away from monitoring their conversations and, frankly, lessened my enthusiasm for community involvement. In the process I did learn, however, that wordle.net does give you an artistic way to deal with news you'd rather not use.

But interesting things have been happening, and I thought I'd let you know. Over the summer several members of the PA&DC began discussions with members of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership, the Community Appearance Commission, the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, NCDOT, and a few other individuals about the issues raised and opportunities presented in creative highway design enhancement - i.e., better architectural design of highways and bridges, and more aesthetic attention to the same (through public art, materials, lighting, etc.). The group has even looked at potential for LEED-type efficiencies in highway design (including recycled and local-produced materials and rainwater catchment issues), even though there is no LEED certification program for highway construction - yet. Most all of the tweaks involve a change to current NCDOT practice but it is change that other states have modeled can be done, and done cost efficiently (see several posts on the blog you are reading). Anyway, many of these ideas local DOT leadership is open to exploring. These "working group" meetings could be the beginning of concrete steps to go from fifteen minutes worth of Photoshopping to true creative destination placemaking in our major transportion corridors. The deadlines for serious involvement in design changes are probably no later than 2011, though competing state priorities with scarce DOT funds could push local projects farther out than that. But I wish them well as they seek to build better, and more beautifully.

The Arts Council's PA&DC having split off its ideas on the Business 40 bridge design redo to a separate group, the committee has returned to its primary work promoting and assisting public art installations in the city. Several of the committee members aided the Arts Council in selecting the artists whose work will be displayed in public areas of the new Sawtooth Center. I missed SECCA's public art event during the National Black Theatre Festival (Kianga Ford's oral and aural interpretation of Winston-Salem's history - "34 x 52 x 40" is still accessible here). But I did hear SECCA-sponsored Mark Jenkins talk about his work at Reynolda House the last full week of September. That week, indeed, was probably as big a week as public art has had in the city this year. On Monday, Jenkins' first public work was taken down within hours of its placement in a kerfuffle over the failure to give a heads-up to officials over its location and purpose; Tuesday saw Jenkins speak on his evolving philosophy of public art at Reynolda House before a packed audience of art students and the public. On Wednesday the Arts Council board met to decide its public art contest winners, and on Friday the Enrichment Center opened its loving new public art sculpture garden. On that Saturday the 26th, West End hosted its ARTSfest, where, among a variety of media represented, you could buy sculpture for your own public art.

All the while that week, construction was resuming on the city's biggest investment in its skyline, the baseball stadium. Let's hope that in all the cash invested and to be spent in this project that the city and owners will abide by their commitment to have the developer spend $10,000 for public art installation. If Charlotte can do one percent for city buildings on public art, and Greensboro can have a community public art foundation lead in assembling monies for art, surely the City of the Arts can abide by a 0.0212765957 percent investment in art in this important public work.

Our Fermata Cantata

I am often asked "where are we on the Business 40 bridges project?" "what's going on with public art?" "what we can we do to help get it going?" And I must say, big-picture wise, regarding public art in Winston-Salem, the image that flashes in my mind, and catches responding words in my throat when asked such questions, is the symbol above.

For the musically challenged among us - and yes, I once pronounced the phrase "treble and bass" as if I were describing fishing adjectives for "hook and boat" - here's a nuanced description from the site www.bach-cantatas.com. "A fermata is the musical symbol of a semicircle (facing downward) with a dot inside it. In some music, it means we should hold a note longer than we would normally. In other music, it simply marks the end of a phrase (e.g. in a Bach chorale) suggesting a lift or a breath, with or without extra time; or in some other situations it merely marks the end of a whole piece, meaning 'don't bother turning the page, you've reached the last note.' Some people automatically assume that it means the first thing; others take it situation by situation. It's important to think about, anyway."

I think giving birth to a sustained public art effort in Winston-Salem is a bit like listening to a "fermata cantata." There are many beautiful voices - artists, institutions, politicians, administrators, advocates. I hear some intriguing melody lines - new bridges defined by creative art and design, a centennial to be celebrated with art placed joyfully around town. Efforts at a basso continuo - a city-sponsored public art commission, maybe, eventually, with common folk involved in the claiming and proclaiming. There are performing stages (though to date they change with each movement of the work) - Arts Council, SECCA, NCDOT, private developers. But there's just a lot of fits and starts that are hard for people to follow. Even for someone as dedicated as I am to the promise of public art, it takes a lot of effort to believe there is a unity to all these staccato bursts, a product that will sound as sweet as I believe it will when we look back on what we've done here.

The fact is, in music, you have to have a conductor, a leader, to tell you how long the fermatas are. The conductor tells you when to stop, but when to get going again. The conductor has to have a baton everyone can see and acknowledge from their point of view, not just a soapbox to stand on. For our public art effort, that baton-wielding conductor could be a political leader, a sustaining benefactor, or both.

I'd like to tell you when this "fermata cantata" piece will be set, when everyone will heed their cues, when unity of purpose will make a beautiful public art music we can all see with our eyes. I can promise you, though, that the more who advocate for public art from the city, who say they want "a ticket," the sooner the performance will be underway again. And at the end of that day, I'll say "Bravo!"

Proof Everything Ends Up on the Web Eventually

For those who want to imagine a different driving experience on Business 40, I offer a palpable reminder of what it currently is like. An unknown YouTube poster, "linesinthesand," has posted an extended video from his dashboard as he cruises from the west side of Forsyth County, first on US 421, and then to the east along Business 40. The real-time driving experience of the bridges in the planned Business 40 reconstruction begins at 5:19 into the clip at Fourth Street, and ends at 6:28 of the clip at Church Street. Good music here, too, though I personally prefer ZZ Top's "La Grange" as a soundtrack when motoring for pleasure. The groove in this video takes me back to days patrolling Gaston County in the late '70s in a mellow cream-yellow-and-tan Cutlass Supreme. "Opera windows:" now that was public art!

Bridges to Somewhere

In a guest editorial published over the weekend in the Winston-Salem Journal, Russell DuBois, a staff architect in facilities planning for the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, argues that NCDOT replacement of the Business 40 bridges will provide downtown with architectural possibilities.

DuBois notes: "With the price of gas rising and the economy hurting, some may scoff that the last thing we need is to drive up the cost of the bridge replacement by incorporating a bunch of design frills. But it is a hallmark of great architectural design that it is often no more expensive than the run-of-the-mill alternative. And remember, this is an opportunity that won't happen again for decades. Surely we as a community can agree that any nominal extra costs would be more than made up for by the added value these designs would provide to our built environment and how it is perceived by visitors as they drive through."

Words well said.

Photos above are of the Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, Brasilia, Brazil, as seen on the website Nine Amazingly Unique Bridges, recommended to this blogger by Katie Gunter.

Creative Bridge Design Exhibit Opens Today, Through October 3

The art exhibit "Creative Bridge Design" will take place Tuesday, September 16th and run now until October 3 at the DADA Center at 526 N. Liberty St. in the Downtown Art District in Winston-Salem.

The art exhibit is to inspire and motivate both the Winston-Salem Community and funders of the Business 40 Project to incorporate public art and creative design into the Business 40 Bridges. The presenting of local artists’ works and examples of innovative bridge design will be among the first visual models presented to the public and NCDOT for the Business 40 Bridges. It will be part of a dialogue in which the community, the Arts, and the State can work side by side on a large scale project that will heighten the city’s development and identity as the “City of the Arts”.

For further information on Creative Bridge Design art exhibition contact Katie Gunter at gunterk7@gmail.com

Photo Essays Show Local Bridge Details, Public Art

Winston-Salem Journal photographer David Rolfe posted this week a photo slide show of aging bridge constructions scattered around the city. With voice commentary by the City-County Planning Board's LeAnn Pegram, the feature follows on the celebration of this resource by the Historic Resources Commission during Historic Preservation Month this last May. A print story by Rolfe appeared in the paper last Sunday. The Wachovia Historical Society and the county will soon release a survey of 45 bridges built in the county from 188o to 1954. I doubt there are many streams in the country crossed by a road bridge supported by hidden fluted columns!

David Rolfe and the Journal have also created a community art map online highlighting the locations of major public art works currently around town. Take a walk online - then take a walk on the streets and see the works yourself. If you know of other works of public art that should be on the map, send us a picture (or tell us where to take one) and we will add to our online inventory! Winston-Salem Journal Photo by David Rolfe.

"I'll have what they're having": Here's my ask for NCDOT and the Community

Arriving in today's email is this news from the city of Seattle: 4Culture and the King County Department of Transportation Road Services Division are seeking a United States artist as design team member on the South Park Bridge Replacement Project. The qualified applicant will have experience working in design team collaborations for large, transportation infrastructure projects and or specifically bridge projects, with additional experience working with Landmark structures. The selected artist will be asked to realize innovative solutions respectful of local historic context within a culturally and economically diverse community. The selected artist shall receive a Design Contract for $60,000. Upon proposal review and approval the artist shall be awarded a contract for Commissioned Artwork for $240,000 plus applicable construction credits. King County is considering a replacement bridge that would cost in the range of $74-$90 million.

Folks ask me what should we ask for, aesthetically, on this Business 40 project. It would be nice if the City of the Arts had the trifecta in place for all its public art opportunities: a steady funding stream (filled in many arts-conscious communities by a percent-for-art program); a professional process for the hiring of public art and design talent and the strategic siting of their work (filled in many arts-conscious communities by a paid public arts administrator or public design commission); and a governmental process for airing community hopes and concerns for the public art and design projects that share their space. The City-County Planning Department has just started such a citizen committee to review public arts gifts after my neighborhood, West End, offered a sculpture to the town at the conclusion of the city's last ARTSfest celebration jointly with the event's other co-sponsors. But, the truth is, we just do not have all the parts of a long-term process for public art and design in place in Winston-Salem; and they may not be in place before Business 40 plans need to be set.

The Business 40 project, however, affords a way to meet all three of those public art process needs itself, and can serve as a catalyst for finishing local long-term process considerations. A dedicated portion of federal highway monies (1-2% of an estimated $100 million) must be spent on beautification of the route, and hiring design and artist advice at the beginning of the roadway process can be a more effective way of creating beauty than adding shrubs, doo-dads, and light fixtures at the end of the process. Secondly, NCDOT already has experience working with outside consultants on other transportation projects around the state to improve their aesthetics, if not yet in Winston-Salem. And finally, NCDOT already has scheduled the forming of community bridge design teams to gather input on the layout and appearance of the roadway bridges from citizens. The current Business 40 project is already setting a high bar for effort in gathering community concerns; adding community aspirations shouldn't be that difficult. The process elements are here, folks, if we will just ask for them. I'm asking NCDOT that they make a national search for an artist to be an integral part of the design team of this roadway from the start. By adding an experienced transportation corridor artist/designer to the Business 40 team, NCDOT can offer the community some aesthetic choices for the new roadway, not just alternative bypass routes. I want our place to give itself the chance to see some of what's possible within a budget. And what's more possible if we as a city find ideas worthy of extra funds.

What might come of the effort? A postcard-view bridge opportunity at Peters Creek, with stadium and skyline in the background. A chance for a fun pedestrian bridge at Green Street. A way to knit back neighborhoods torn apart by the initial build of the road nearly sixty years ago. Symbolic reminders of things found in our place shown right along the roadway. Showing travelers that they are driving on a dash that separates old Winston from old Salem. Or a corridor driving experience that in its styling and details will feel different in such a way as to mark our place special.

I'm no artist. The choices in my brain only mimic other places in the way ideas for interior design at Home Depot and Lowe's always fall in certain style baskets. But if I want my house to reflect me, my priorities, and sense of style, I'll hire a professional designer, and not just order from the catalog.

Even in the City of the Arts, which so values design and creativity in many ways, we do not live in a perfect public art world. Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the better. Let's ask for more than interchangeable interstate concrete. Let's support transportation engineers doing their work with design and art professionals adding their talents as well. Ask for more from our transportation and community leaders - not more money, but more design and artist input. I confidently expect that NCDOT will deliver us a good roadway. But I want us to ask for something better, something more. I'll have what they're having.

Carpe Viam

Probably the most famous bridge in the state of North Carolina is the Linn Cove Viaduct, a serpentine embrace of the slope of Grandfather Mountain installed along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the early 1980s. Although the technical challenges of traversing the site could have been made easier with road cuts and strategic mountain blasts, the bridge designers, Figg Engineering Group, seized the opportunity to make an aesthetic statement with the highway and to work with the landscape rather than simply conquer it. Blending iron oxides into the concrete, the team even "painted" its building materials to more closely resemble the granite of the rock face on which the bridge rests.

The city of Asheville sits in a high valley surrounded by mountain crests. When the I-240 thoroughfare into the city was completed a few years back, engineers sacrificially blasted through one wall of mountain encircling the city. But the highway awkwardly merged with the town's main east-west local street. The subsequent completion of north-south Interstate 26 offered the city a chance to connect the two interstates near the French Broad River running through town, relieving pressure on downtown traffic. The initial drawings from transportation officials for the I-26 connector offered several options to the city. But to many in the local design community, the plans were unnecessarily complex and wasteful in their use of city space, as well as being visually unappealing.

A local group of architects and design friends, aided by a grant from the American Institute of Architects 150th Anniversary Celebration, pooled their talents and formed the Asheville Design Center. They rented a downtown storefront, offered volunteer hours, canvassed community concerns, created a three-dimensional model where citizens could visualize alternate routes, and came up with their own set of technical concerns and aesthetic opportunities they wanted the project to address. The biggest concern was to reduce the amount of scarce lands lost to exit and entrance ramps in the official plans. When locals suggested a double-decker roadway in strategic points and a single bridge instead of two, area friend Figg Engineering Group (of Linn Cove fame) offered up a design for a two-story bridge that will solve the technical needs of the I-26 Connector and give the city a beautiful new postcard view, uniting river, mountains, and city skyline with a stylistic statement that will say that place does things differently and more beautifully.

Asheville's experience on the I-26 Connector has changed the way dialog about transportation projects and potentials is approached in that community. Both transportation officials and community leaders have new insights on the benefits of working together. NCDOT is already making great efforts in Winston-Salem to collect community concerns in the upcoming Business 40 project, and our strong local transportation and planning agencies are anxious to put their good talents to the technical challenges ahead. But Winston-Salem has yet to pull together its creative design resources, its priorities for beauty and self-statement, in addition to those technical requirements that a new urban roadway must meet. The picture below shows the new downtown baseball park just to the west of Winston-Salem's skyline, alongside the Business 40 corridor (at photo right) that will soon be re-designed. We have an opportunity to add beauty as well as improve the function of this roadway. Will we as a community "seize the day" of this opportunity? Will we, in essence, "seize the roadway," and make it uniquely our own?

Call for Entries: "Creative Bridge Design" Art Exhibition in September

The art exhibit "Creative Bridge Design" will take place Tuesday, September 16th and run until September 30th at the DADA Center in the Downtown Art District. The art exhibit is to inspire and motivate both the Winston-Salem Community and funders of the Business 40 Project to incorporate public art into the Business 40 Bridges. The presenting of local artists’ works and designs of innovative bridge design will be among the first visual models to present to the public and NCDOT for the Business 40 Bridges. It will be a chance for the Community, the Arts, and the State to work side by side on a large scale project that will heighten the city’s development and identity as the “City of the Arts”.

This community arts project is open to local artists, architects, engineers, and designers that are 18 & older ("local" meaning Forsyth County and other artists who are able to "hand deliver" their artworks matted or framed to DADA Center by the 5th of September). Artworks will range from drawings, both artistic and technical, painting, watercolor, photography, graphics, and 3D. Artwork should illustrate in some form a cultural connection to the Winston-Salem community. Imagine new symbols and artistic expression to represent Winston-Salem. Final deadline will be September 5th. Purpose of exhibition will not be to sell artwork, but inquiries may be made and passed onto the artists. The "Creative Bridge Design" art exhibition is the continuation of the Community Arts Forum held April 22, 2008 at Green St. United Methodist Church with guest panelists Thorns Craven, Eric Elliott, and Mark Leach discussing public art’s impact on community and city development.

Additional information on the Business 40 Project and Public Art can be found at http://www.business40nc.com or http://winstonsalempublicart.blogspot.com. For further information on the "Creative Bridge Design" art exhibition, contact Katie Gunter at gunterk7@gmail.com

Welcome to the Conversation!

Thanks to those who took part in tonight's conversation at Green Street United Methodist Church about the possibilities for public art and enhanced design in the Business 40 bridge project. As tonight's panel discussion showed, the potential to re-imagine and re-present our city with the aid of transportation corridor renovation exists both along US 52/future I-285 and along Business 40, and helping create an infrastructure to address those opportunities will likely be a part of the future work of the Arts Council's Public Art and Design committee. But we'd like you to be part of the conversation now with us. How?

--Leave a comment here on your ideas for what's possible - what's exciting - what's important to say about our place in such a venue. Showplacing the work of well-known artists and designers? Integrating stories and symbols of what makes this "our place"? Brainstorm with us on how can we use art and design to make the necessity of transport corridors into opportunities to celebrate and build and reflect community. Is there a cultural icon or got-to-have-photo-opportunity down the road in this project?

--Participate in local bridge design meeting groups sponsored by NCDOT over the summer and insist that the talents of artists and designers be included in the plans for the corridor from the start, not after the fact. Keep in touch with plans for these sessions at the Business 40 website.

--Lobby regional and state leaders at NCDOT to include consultation with artists and aesthetic design teams in the earliest planning of the project.

--Stay tuned here for updates on future events promoting the opportunities of this project and other public art work. And tell your neighbors you want them to join in "this vision thing," too!

Special gratitude to our hosts at Green Street United Methodist Church for being yet again a great place for community building, and to Salem College Arts Management Students Sandy Romanac and Katie Gunter for their good work in promoting the Business 40 corridor opportunity.

Bridge Architecture as Public Art

From Public Art Committeee member Keith Wilson, architect at Calloway Johnson Moore and West - I have included here a few images of Santiago Calatrava bridges that I like. I'm not suggesting that we try to have our bridges looks like any of these - it would be quite expensive to try to do something like that. This is merely to demonstrate how a bridge can become an icon image for an area or a city. These bridges generate revenue for their cities because people will visit just to see them. I include them merely to get people to start to see what a bridge can be.

Structurae is an excellent site with thousands of images of all styles of bridges. But I don't think we should get too caught up in what the bridge should look like. The important thing to focus our attention on is the desire to make these bridges into something more. Hopefully we will find a designer who can provide that vision for us, and the funding to make that happen.

At the Asheville Design Center website, there is also quite a bit of information on bridge projects and several examples even take you through the process.