The Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Program seeks artist(s) or artist team(s) to design an outdoor artwork for the main terrace and an indoor artwork for the lobby area of the Vermont Corridor Building, a new facility for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH). The artwork will shape the space of the two common areas that serve as main circulation zones for facility staff and visitors. This civic art project coincides with a series of structural and architectural transformations of several County buildings and properties into modern facilities that will serve the public in ways that revitalize communities, improve services, and support a welcoming environment for a department whose core mission centers around hope, recovery and wellbeing.
Budget: $850,000, all-inclusive (for 2 projects; see details below)
Eligibility: Professional artists residing or working in the United States
Deadline: June 4, 2018
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Vermont Corridor is a major project which spans five County-owned properties in the Koreatown area of L.A. The sites are located at 3175 West 6th Street and at 433, 510, 526, 532 and 550 South Vermont Avenue. The Vermont Corridor is home to over half a million square feet of Los Angeles County (County) owned office space and over half a million square feet of County leased space. The purpose of this project was to expedite the elimination of blight, provide DMH with a new headquarters facility, provide job opportunities for local residents and provide expansion opportunities for local and/or small businesses.This project is anticipated to have a two year design and construction schedule.
GOALS OF THE ARTWORK
Civic Art is an essential element of the project visioning and design implementation throughout the new Vermont Corridor building. There are two opportunities: the terrace level and the ground level entrance on Vermont Street.
OPPORTUNITY 1: Terrace Level: $700,000 budget.
Main terrace and lobby area with surrounding meeting rooms. This could be sculptural, sound, or light installations for exterior and interior spaces.
The artwork design for the terrace level will reshape the main common space, where offices, meeting rooms and recreational areas coexist. The terrace level bridges the parking structure to the main building. This is the nexus point of arrival for the facility’s staff and 90% of the visitors to the building. The exterior building façade is a transparent glass envelope, which emphasizes a sense of permeability between interior and exterior spaces by offering different modes of encounter and interaction to different users, including tenant occupants and the public. The terrace level’s configuration allows sculptural volumetric elements space with a maximum load of 100 lbs/sf. The artwork will become a notable element of the space and should be timeless providing staff and visitors a reason to gravitate to this area. In considering the significant amount of activities that will be centralized in this area, the artist may consider to address time, transformation and change as common threads.
OPPORTUNITY 2: Ground Level Entrance: $150,000 budget.
Client intake level. This level is intended to serve the homeless population by offering a place to stay during the day, showers, access to resources and specialists, etc. Anything on this level needs to be durable.
The artwork design for the ground level entrance from Vermont Street will be an integral element of a community space already equipped with tables and chairs, a small reception area and adjacent rooms for some support devices. Homeless populations may heavily utilize this area. To encourage the utilization of the space, the artist(s) should create a safe and restorative environment, a welcoming harbor made of durable, resilient and maintainable materials. The design should result in artwork that is site-specific informed by the nature of the facility and specifically with the services that this facility provides. The architectural rendering of the lobby space shows an area with table and chairs that offer to the artist(s) the opportunity to intervene in the space considering the notion of “front porch” and “communal table”, as well as notion of a protective and comforting private environment.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
SELECTION PROCESS
Between three to four artists will be short-listed for interviews for each location opportunity (and to develop paid proposals) based on the qualifications and criteria listed in this artist call. A finalist/artwork proposal will be selected from a short presentation and interview. A unique Project Coordination Committee (PCC) has been assembled for this civic art commission. The PCC reviews artist applications, conducts finalist interviews, selects the artist (or artist team), and reviews the project from design development through artwork installation.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
Artists will be selected on the basis of their qualifications, as demonstrated by the quality of their past work and suitability of their artistic expression for this particular site. Artist applications will be evaluated on the following criteria; only artists who meet these criteria should apply.
FORM
FUNCTION
ENVIRONMENT
TECHNOLOGY
PROCESS
HOW TO APPLY
Applications must be uploaded to Call for Entries (CaFE) no later than Monday, June 4, 2018 at 5:00 PM PST. Any application materials received after the date and time specified above will be rejected and considered non-responsive.
1. Provide answers to the questions listed below in CaFE' at the prompt. Only applications that specifically address these points will be considered.
2. Résumé including name, mailing address, phone number(s), fax, email and web page (if applicable). Résumé should not exceed three (3) pages.
3. Provide five (5) to ten (10) images or video clips of your work – maximum of ten (10) work examples allowed:
4. Three professional references, with title, phone and email addresses included.
QUESTIONS? Contact Mayen Alcantara, Senior Project Manager of Civic Art, at 213-202-5859 or at malcantara@arts.lacounty.gov with subject: VERMONT CORRIDOR BUILDING. For additional information about the Civic Art Program, please visit the Civic Art Program online at http://www.lacountyarts.org/civicart.htm.
