Artist Sought for Engineering Building Public Art

Artist Sought for Engineering Building Public Art

Website: https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=7571

 801.245.7271

 Ogden, UT, Unknown

Qualifications are sought from interested artists or artist teams to create site-specific artwork(s) for the new Weber State Noorda Engineering, Applied Science & Technology Building in Ogden, UT. A successful artwork would convey and/or demonstrate principles of engineering and/or science and might also have a sustainability component, either in function or content.

BUDGET: $410,000

ELIGIBILITY: Professional artists who are US citizens or otherwise legal US residents.

DEADLINE: April 10, 2020

Review full RFQ with site renderings here.

NOORDA ENGINEERING, APPLIED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BUILDING

Situated on the north end of the Weber State University Ogden campus, the Noorda Engineering Building will serve as the new home for the College of Engineering, Applied Science and Technology (EAST). The building will house academic classrooms and labs for the departments of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, the School of Computing and Sales. In partnership with the WSU functions, the building will also house science and engineering classrooms, as well as administrative spaces, for the early college High School: NUAMES (Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science).

As the campus is situated on the bench of the Wasatch Mountains, the Noorda Engineering Building is nestled into the east rising natural grade. This allows the building to have on grade access at multiple levels. At the west, all four floors of the building as exposed with an entrance at Level 0 from the A2 parking lot and access to the Student Outreach program and Maker Space. It is here that community and public outreach programs are hosted, with open access from the Maker Space into the building, as well as out to a north plaza.

On the main campus grade, there are major student entrances at the north and south of the building providing access to Level 1. Both entrances are connected through the building’s large, communal student forum space. The forum is a three-story volume, with a communicating stair connecting the floors, and student study balconies lining the opening. The forum will be used for student study, events, engineering project display and speakers. As the primary public level, this floor hosts active student spaces, including mechanical and engineering labs, club space, student study and senior projects shops.

Organized at the north end of the building the senior projects labs open to an outdoor engineering yard with direct access to the adjacent high bay Concept Center. As the campus slope rises on grade, access is available to the east at Level 2. With student drop off access, this entrance serves as the primary entry for NUAMES students. The top floor of the building, Level 3, can be considered the “clean” floor, housing the departments of School of Computing and Sales. Administrative Offices are stacked on Floors 1 – 3, on the west elevation.

Engineering on display is integral into the design of the building. The building systems themselves are on display throughout the building, including exposed air distribution ducts that rise up along the west wall of the forum. Structural bracing is exposed and celebrated along the perimeter. Rather than being hidden, the building mechanical and electrical rooms are open and visible to the public, with educating environmental graphics describing the systems. On the exterior of the building, sunshades are organized into patterns demonstrating concepts of engineering. Even the lower level brick pattern denotes elements of engineering.

ARTWORK LOCATIONS

The Committee has identified several areas that may be suitable for an artist’s interpretation but will remain open to other areas as envisioned by the finalist artists. These identified areas include the forum space, building entrances at Level 1, and the building entrance plazas (at Levels 0, 1 and 2). The space North of level 0 and 1 will likely become popular public gathering spaces with an outdoor forum envisioned there. The exterior south wall of the High Bay building faces the engineering yard and will be visible to Nuames high school students, and college-level ME, EE, and CS students. The building entrance at level 0 and the open area there will be programmed for K-12 recruitment and/or outreach by the College. In addition, the forum space is slated to have one or more high-end digital screens. This screen(s) could be used for occasional presentations but we envision them as principally presenting digital art.

ARTWORK GOALS

A successful proposal would convey and/or demonstrate principles of engineering and/or science and might also have a sustainability component, either in function or content. Examples might include basic machines (pulleys, incline plane, gears, etc.), kinetic work, demonstrations of scientific principles (ie., vacuum tubes demonstrating gravity or a real-time digital representation of how the building functions), work which uses the building’s form and or site in a meaningful way, interactive work with science or engineering content, etc. The artwork proposed may be singular or consist of multiple works which function together. Proposed work should reflect and compliment the engineering and science teaching and research mission of the building and those who use it.

Proposed work should reflect and compliment the engineering and science teaching and research mission of the building and those who use it. Please review the building plans and illustrations carefully and consider both interior and exterior spaces, and the unique possibilities afforded by the building’s design. In addition, the possibility of an outdoor in-ground labyrinth pattern has been discussed by faculty and staff in the college.

TIMELINE

  • April 10, 2020: Deadline for receipt of artist’s material
  • April 23, 2020: Committee reviews applications
  • June 18, 2020:   Finalist presentations
  • Summer 2022: Building project completion / move in

SELECTION PROCESS

The Selection Committee will review all properly submitted qualifications from which a short list of semi-finalists will be selected. Semi-finalists will be asked present a full proposal to the committee on June 18, 2020 to include concept, budget and time-line. All semi-finalists will be awarded an honorarium to help defray the costs of the development of the proposal. The honorarium will be applied toward the commission amount for the artist(s) awarded the commission(s.)

WHAT TO SUBMIT

  1. Letter of Interest: Briefly describe your interest in this project and how your work may relate. If you have a concept in mind you may include that information. 5000 Maximum Character Limit
  2. Visual support materials: Visual representations of your work in up to ten still images and/or up to six moving image files – for total of 10 samples maximum. (jpg files under 5MB –Video files: MOV, MP4, WMV, 3GP, AVI, ASF, MPG, M2T, MKV, M2TS under 100 MB – Audio files: AIFF, WAV, XMF, MP3 under 10 MB
  3. CV/Resume: Upload up to three pages.

The Art Selection Committee reserves the right to withhold the award of a commission or re-release the call for entries.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Submit online only via the CaFE system. Faxed or e-mailed applications cannot be accepted.

QUESTIONS? Contact Jim Glenn at 801.245.7271 or jglenn@utah.gov