Public Art for the Cass Avenue Bridge is a project of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) administered by Regina M Flanagan, Art • Landscape • Design LLC and advisor Seitu Kenneth Jones through HNTB Corporation.

Budget: $200,000
Eligibility:  Professional artists over 18 living in the United States and legally allowed to work in the United States
Deadline: 04/24/2020

ARTIST INFORMATION SESSIONS

Artists can learn more about the project and ask questions during two online webinars:

• Wednesday, April 1, 2020, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT
  Meeting number (access code): 743 038 229
• Thursday, April 2, 2020, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm EDT
  Meeting number (access code): 749 675 560

Join by phone: 
Tap to call in from a mobile device (attendees only)
+1-415-655-0002 US Toll
+1-855-797-9485 US Toll free

Join from a video system or application:
Dial 749675560@hntb.webex.com
You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.

Project Description
The Cass Avenue bridge, part of the I-94 Modernization Project, is in Midtown, one of Detroit’s most dynamic and evolving districts. Midtown includes the Cass Corridor and Woodward Avenue, home to cultural and educational institutions such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, the College for Creative Studies, the C.H. Wright Museum of African American History, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and Wayne State University. New Center north of I-94, a medical research and technology district, includes Tech Town and the Henry Ford Medical Center as well as Wayne State University facilities.

The I-94 Modernization Project includes 67 bridges, multiple interchanges including M-10 (Lodge) and I-75 (Chrysler) freeways. The freeway runs east-west and Cass Avenue crosses over it and connects downtown and the Midtown cultural and educational district to the south with the New Center research and technology district to the north.

The I-94 Rehabilitation Project Corridor Design Guidelines (2010) govern design for the I-94 Modernization Project. Produced with extensive public involvement, they express the community’s hope that the freeway re-design reflects community identity and Detroit’s rich cultural heritage, signaling that Detroit has embarked upon a new era of optimism and rebuilding. The Design Guidelines recognize that public art has the unique potential to meet this goal by contributing to placemaking, elevating aesthetic quality and revealing history and culture.

According to the Design Guidelines, the Cass Avenue Bridge is designated a “Community Connector” bridge because it connects commercial and cultural corridors where civic/neighborhood zones are present adjacent to the bridge. Community Connector bridges may have more intensive landscaping and feature public art that highlights the community in order to soften the transition between the freeway and residential and commercial areas.

MDOT’s community engagement efforts also revealed that improving local connectivity and walkability were a priority of neighborhood residents and stakeholders and Complete Streets concepts are incorporated into the Cass Avenue bridge design. Complete Streets accommodate all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders within the roadway space.

Artwork Opportunities

1. Land approaching the bridge. The southwest corner presents potential for placemaking and public art. This space is adjacent to Wayne State University’s parking ramp and a mix of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. It is bounded on the freeway side by a 20-foot long wall extension that retains a slope down to the mainline behind it. The flat area available for placemaking is an irregular shape measuring approximately 20-feet by 50-feet by 170-feet by 90-feet (see Site Details PDF). Artists have the opportunity to affect the entire space, integrating the design into the bridge approach elements and influencing landscaping. Considerations include maintaining safe sight-lines and setbacks at the parking ramp driveway. Placemaking involving artwork must comply with Americans with Disabilities (ADA) law and maintenance must be reasonable.
2. Opportunities on the bridge.
   1. Planter boxes will function as crash barriers and protect pedestrians. The boxes were originally intended to have lighting that has been eliminated due to sufficient planned lighting on the bridge. The existing plans and weight calculations for the bridge include footings for a total of five pairs of lights, installed every fifty feet. These footings could provide attachment points for public art. The planter boxes are six-feet wide and 24-inches tall outside dimension, and 4-foot 4-inches wide by 23 3/4-inches tall for the interior dimension. They run the 195-foot length of the bridge on either side of the driving lanes and bound the 9-foot-wide pedestrian sidewalk. Planters have a landscaping plan with plantings intended to be maintained by the City of Detroit. The planters are designed to be removed if necessary.
   2. Barrier or parapet and the cast-in-place concrete surface of the planter boxes present the potential for up to two-inch deep incised relief if it does not compromise structural integrity of the planters that must function as a crash barrier. Considerations include not adding weight to the bridge because the vertical weight/dead load is a specific concern. Artwork must attend to wind loads. Fine, intricate details on concrete should be avoided because of potential salt erosion and damage. Maintenance must be reasonable.

Community Forums
After the Artist(s) selection, MDOT, the administrator, PAC and project team will host two Community Forums during the project. Artist(s) will help us devise the forum format most suitable to their working process. Forum #1 will kick-off the design phase and provide an opportunity for artist(s) to interact with the community and gain inspiration. We anticipate a highly interactive first forum event occurring in the district during the summer. Later, in the fall artist(s) will present their proposed design to the community during Forum #2 after it has been reviewed and approved by the PAC and MDOT.

Artwork Goals

• Artwork should invite and encourage pedestrian movement across the bridge.
• Design should activate the space and draw people to it, creating a memorable destination.
• Artists are open to gaining inspiration through innovative community engagement.

Artwork Location Description
The Cass Avenue Bridge is an “advanced bridge” – designed and constructed before mainline corridor construction begins.

The cross-section for the bridge has driving lanes for a two-way local street (Cass Avenue) and wide sidewalks and bike lanes. The design meets both stakeholder and community expectations and the City of Detroit Planning and Development Department’s requirements to be pedestrian-friendly, provide a node of activity, and minimize the freeway’s interruption into the neighborhood.

Timeline

• Mar 18, 2020 Open Call issued through Call for Entry (CAFÉ).
• April 1-2, 2020 Artist Information WEBINARS.
• April 24, 2020 Deadline to apply for this open call EXTENDED.
• April-May 2020 PAC selection process.
• June 1, 2020 Artists notified of outcome.
• Week of June 29, 2020 Design period kicks off with Community Forum #1.
• Week of August 3, 2020 Design presentation to PAC.
• August 2020 TBD Community Forum #2 introduces design to public.
• Sept 2020-Nov 2021 Integration with bridge design plans, fabrication and installation of artwork.

Selection Process
Artist(s) will be selected by an eight-person Public Art Committee (PAC) who will make recommendations to MDOT. The PAC has representatives from MDOT, Detroit Institute of Arts, the College for Creative Studies, Wayne State University Art Department, Midtown Detroit Inc., and Detroit Collaborative Design Center, along with community residents.

Selection Criteria
Primary:

• Quality and ideas shown in past work.
• Evidence of completing projects of similar scope and complexity, or progressively greater scale.
• Past work constructed of materials durable in the outdoors.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with government agencies, design and construction professions, and community groups in the creation of a project.
• Examples of gaining inspiration through structuring and conducting community engagement.

Secondary:

• Familiarity with the city of Detroit, its people and culture.
• Potential to involve students and youth in the process especially during the summer design phase.
• Experience creating public art for a transportation project.

What to Submit

(none listed)

How to Submit

Apply using the CaFE system.

QUESTIONS? Contact Regina Flanagan, regina@artlandscapedesign.us