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.

Seeing Our City

Under the title "Seeing our City: The Art of Defining a Place," Reynolda House is hosting a series of free public forums, with talks by leading experts and local leaders, on three successive Thursday evenings in October. The forums are in conjunction with Reynolda House's new exhibition "Seeing the City: Sloan's New York." John Sloan's paintings present a unique opportunity to promote discussion about what makes a city interesting and beautiful. Is it the variety of people that make up its residents? Is it the architecture? Is it the natural parks and places where people can relax by the water, or artists and their creativity that add an indefinable spark to a city? Support for this series is provided by the North Carolina Arts Council and the J.C. Tise Fund of The Winston-Salem Foundation.

Members of the audience will be encouraged to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. Forums begin at 7pm, and a reception follows each forum. On October 9 the forum's topic will be "The Face of Our City: Architectural Characteristics, Unique Assets, and Conscientious Development." On October 16 the focus turns to "The Heart of Our City: Downtown Living, Diversity, and a District for the Arts." The speaker that night will be Dr. James Johnson, a fellow of the Urban Land Institute, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center, and professor at the UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Johnson is a nationally recognized authority on urban development and social justice. A panel discussion that night will include representatives from Goler Community Development Corporation, the Downtown Arts District, and the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership.

Finally, on October 23 the series closes with the topic "Transforming Our City: Bridging Public Art and Public Works." The featured speaker this evening will be Frederick Gottemoeller, an architect, engineer, and author of the classic study Bridgescape: The Art of Designing Bridges. He is recognized for generating significant public involvement in conceptual engineering for major public works projects around the country. In 1998 Mr. Gottemoeller co-organized "Thinking Beyond the Pavement," the national conference that initiated the Context-Sensitive Design Movement. The evening's discussion panel includes representatives from the Public Art Committee of the Winston-Salem Arts Council, the Community Appearance Commission, and the Business 40 Project.

Eyesore to Eye Candy

An exciting overview of trends in public art placemaking, Roberta Smith's article in the August 22 New York Times is well worth reading. As she notes, "over the past 15 years public sculpture — that is, static, often figurative objects of varying sizes in outdoor public spaces — has become one of contemporary art’s more exciting areas of endeavor and certainly its most dramatically improved one." For those who want to get excited by possibilities, Smith's piece is a good place to start.

The picture above of Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate,” nicknamed by locals in Chicago "the Bean," is by Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times.

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