Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) & Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners (JLREP) are soliciting qualifications from accomplished artists or artist teams to create a site-specific public artwork for the entry lobby of the new WMATA Regional Headquarters Facility.

BUDGET: $150,000 or $300,000 depending on location

ELIGIBILITY: Professional artists

DEADLINE:  July 3, 2020

Project Description

The WMATA 300 7th Street SW building is an 11-story headquarters facility that will consolidate several departments of the Authority. It will foster a culture that is safety-focused, customer-centric and technology-enabled, and create a rich, immersive employee experience. The building will feel welcoming, open and accessible, and the building’s entry lobby is a light-filled, double-height space wrapping the southwest corner of the building.

Parameters and Goals
The Authority has a history of, and an expectation for design excellence, and, through its Art in Transit Program, has been working to obtain unique, memorable, and engaging site-specific, public artworks. The Artist or Artist teams shall develop aesthetically attractive public artworks that capture the Authority’s mission and reflect the artistic, cultural and/or historical interests of the surrounding communities. Consideration shall be given to creative uses of materials, massing, scale, form, texture, and detailing. Artworks shall be visually attractive, innovative, as well as durable. The selected site-specific artworks should impart a sense of pride within the local community and provide a stimulating and attractive environment for the people who will experience the artworks daily.

Design Principles
Selected finalists will be asked to consider the following principles when developing their design:

• Quality of the work and durability of materials
• Enduring aesthetics
• Relationship to other artworks in the city
• Future development plans for the area
• Appropriate scale; Artwork proportional to scale and volume of the space
• Visibility and Public accessibility
• Safety/Structural and surface soundness
• Resistance to theft, vandalism, weathering and excessive maintenance
• Low maintenance with minimal ongoing maintenance and operational costs
• Space activation
• Technical feasibility
• Suitability for a diverse public
• Abiding by the principles of Universal Design

Timeline

• Request for Qualifications posted: June 3rd, 2020
• Q&A period: June 5th to June 19th, 2020
• RFQ closed, Qualifications Due: July 3rd, 2020
• Qualifications evaluation/Select Finalists: July 20th, 2020
• Release additional info to Finalists: July 27th, 2020
• Site-specific Design Proposal due: August 10th, 2020
• Semi-finalists interviews/presentations: week of August 24th, 2020
• Project award decision: September 4th, 2020

Selection Process

Each RFQ submission will be reviewed and evaluated individually by the Artist Selection Panel in accordance with the procedures and criteria highlighted in this RFQ. Qualifications will be evaluated by their strengths, weaknesses, and deficiencies against the evaluation factors and these attributes will be
communicated to the Applicants for follow-up action as appropriate. The Applicants shall describe in detail the means and methods of prosecuting the work described in this Statement of Qualifications.

Selection Criteria

The Artist Selection Panel will be using the following criteria to evaluate each artist/artist’s team submission during stage 1 and stage 2 of the selection process:

• Quality of the Work: High quality artwork as determined by recognized art professionals, arts administrators, developers and designers qualified to evaluate contemporary artist portfolios, credentials and/or proposals.
• Site-specificity: An artist’s concept and the physical artwork are integrated into the project and should relate to the project site, immediate landscape, urban fabric, and/or surrounding communities.
• Durability of Materials: Artworks in public spaces may be subject to a variety of harsh conditions including but not limited to impact from pedestrian traffic, build-up of soot and grime, a range of climate conditions, and potential vandalism. Durable materials should be used that attain the optimum degree of maintainability and proven ability to withstand the specific environmental conditions of the area. Artwork should need minimal maintenance.
• Originality of approach and methodologies used to convey meaning through art
• Artist’s ability to complete the project in view of past commissions and resume
• Cohesiveness of art pieces with each other and the surrounding environment.
• Safety: Submittals will be reviewed for safety and structural integrity.

In addition to the above criteria, the Artist Selection Panel will consider the following when ranking the finalists during stage 2 of the selection process:

• Review each project for its feasibility
• Review evidence of the artist’s ability to successfully complete the work as proposed.
• Each project will be reviewed for the following factors including, but not limited to: project budget, time line, community engagement, knowledge of applicable regulations, construction and design guidelines, artistic excellence, originality and creativity of proposal.

What to Submit

(no information provided)

How to Submit

STAGE 1 PROPOSALS MAY BE SUBMITTED DIGITALLY TO: WMATAPlazaHQ@jairlynch.com OR MAY BE SUBMITTED IN HARD COPY TO:

Public Art Project, WMATA L’Enfant Plaza, Washington, DC
c/o Lynch Development Partners
1400 16th street NW
Suite 430
Washington, DC 20036

QUESTIONS? Questions may be submitted to: WMATAPlazaHQ@jairlynch.com