Downtown: The artwork
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 11, 2015 1:50 AM
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Some say they are too modern for a newly renovated historic downtown -- and not part of the original pitch for the city's Center Street renovation plan.
Some say they are just what a modern and rejuvenated downtown needs to signal it is ready for growth.
But as of Friday's official placement ceremony, "Flight," "Dreamsicle," "Natural Embrace" and "Genesis" will be part of the new landscape downtown -- at least for the next year.
And city and Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. officials say that if city residents don't like them, not to worry, they can be changed out for something else in a year.
In addition to the two art pieces that will be placed in the roundabouts, two more are being leased to be placed in other areas of downtown.
One of the newly secured art pieces will be placed in the John Street parking lot, facing Center Street. The other will be placed in the center median of the 100 block of North Center Street.
The John Street parking lot piece, "Flight," is being paid for with city funds, although Downtown Goldsboro Development Corp. director Julie Metz said the city is not yet sure where the money will come from in its budget.
The Goldsboro City Council authorized the leasing of "Flight" at the same time it authorized securing the artwork that will go in the traffic circles, at the council's work session meeting on July 6.
A group of private citizens -- Allison Platt, David Ham, Betty Duncan and Barbara Wright -- is donating the piece that will go in the 100 block of North Center Street -- named "Genesis" -- and paying the $1,000 cost to lease it for one year with their own money. The city will pay to insure the piece, along with the other three pieces.
The three pieces being leased by the city come with a one-year lease at a cost of $2,000 for each piece per year the art is leased. So, they carry a price tag of $6,000 per year.
The names of the pieces initially selected for the traffic circles are "Natural Embrace" and "Sunkissed." But, when the city went to secure the lease for "Sunkissed," the city was told it had already been purchased by another city.
The city has since secured a lease for "Dreamsicle," which was designed by the same artist.
It is nearly identical to the piece the city initially sought to lease, and is the same bright orange color.
When Streetscape was first marketed to the public, the plans were different than what has taken shape on Center Street as the project nears completion.
In an article that appeared in the News-Argus on Sept. 1, 2010, urban designer Allison Platt said at the time that Streetscape called for a throwback to the way Center Street once looked, with walkable medians, 17-foot wide sidewalks, underground utilities, the removal of holly trees and more open, green space.
City officials maintain that the initial concept for Streetscape that was shown to the public was just that -- a conceptual rendering meant to show a vision of how the project might look when completed and not a definitive rendering showing exactly what the final product would be.
The decision to add extra traffic circles -- and, eventually, the art pieces -- came later, when plans to install traffic lights were scrapped in favor of roundabouts.
"This change came as a result of bidding the block in front of City Hall, and to put the traffic signals on poles with no wires was similar in cost to building a roundabout," City Manager Scott Stevens said. "We discussed this change with City Council a number of times before the final decision was made to include roundabouts at all three intersecting roads, instead of just at Walnut and Center as originally envisioned."
City officials and others involved with Streetscape said those who don't like the selected artwork might warm up to them once they are viewed in person, or the dissatisfied citizens can wait it out until the lease on the artwork is up in a year.
Either way, the selections are final until the leases are up.
At that point, the city can cycle in new artwork or pay to keep the incoming artwork for another year.
DGDC officials say they asked the community for its opinion on what would go downtown.
That opinion, and comments, were sought, they say, through the organization's website, which displayed the artwork selections being considered by the Public Art Steering Committee, which was formed earlier this year to choose the artwork for downtown.
Assistant Planning Director Jennifer Collins, who also serves on the city's Historic District Commission, said pictures of the final art choices were also in the DGDC's office for public viewing and input.
The committee whittled down options for artwork from 36 choices to 11. These 11 choices were then made public on the DGDC's website so citizens could provide feedback.
From there, three final options were picked by the committee and shown to the City Council at its July 6 meeting. These three final options were selected based on feedback from the DGDC's website, Ms. Platt said.
Following that meeting, the PASC voted on which two pieces would be placed in the traffic circles.
Ms. Collins said she did not feel that the selected artwork degraded the historic integrity of downtown, and Ms. Platt agreed.
"I think that the city, by being an historic downtown, is not frozen in time," Ms. Platt said, who serves on the Public Art Steering Committee. "It's definitely historic, and no one more than me wishes to preserve the history of our town. But on the other hand, you know, if you look at the design guidelines, they are mutable in the sense that if you really insisted on historic accuracy a lot of these houses (in the historic district) wouldn't have bathrooms. You have to adapt to the situation in which we live our lives."