New sites chosen for US 41 roundabout sculptures

The two newest pieces in the city’s public art collection will be bound for new homes unless the Sarasota City Commission has any inclination to tell staff to find budget money to cover the unexpected cost of building concrete pads in their intended roundabouts.

With checks written and fabrication underway on Poly and Seagrass, sculptures approved for the roundabouts at 14th and 10th streets, respectively, on U.S. 41, city staff learned the budgeted $514,000 was less than half the cost to install concrete foundations for those pieces. Further negotiations with the lone bidder for the work, Jon F. Swift Construction, brought the price down to $883,000 — leaving a $369,000 gap.

That proved to be too much of a difference for City Manager Marlon Brown, who instructed Public Art Manager Mary Davis Wallace to draft a list of options not only for the placement of Poly and Seagrass, but also for Complexus, the city-owned sculpture currently on loan to the Sarasota Art Museum. The list of options also included locations for Where the Sun Always Shines, which was recently selected as the Public Art Committee’s recommendation to the City Commission for the roundabout at Fruitville Road and U.S. 41.

Courtesy rendering

“It's possible that the commission could reverse everything that we just discussed tonight and say that we want to find the money for the two roundabouts,” Wallace said after the committee selected its recommended locations at its Sept. 11 meeting. “It's ultimately going to be up to them.”

In the event the City Commission holds the line on the installation budget, the PAC spent nearly three hours Monday evening discussion and deciding on new locations in an effort to balance the artists’ preferences with the community’s interests and the budget.

Even moving the installations outside the Florida Department of Transportation right of way — where the pool of certified contractors is shallow and the cost to manage traffic during installations is greater — doesn’t guarantee affordability. The PAC was told during the meeting by City Engineer Nik Patel that the cost to install pads in locations outside the FDOT right of way could range between $350,000 and $750,000 each, depending on a variety of factors such as availability of electricity for lighting.

That detail surprised even Wallace.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

“We're all in shock with what the pre-2020 prices were to pour a 15-foot foundation,” Wallace said.”It was under $100,000.”

Some potential relief is available in the form of $443,119 that was earmarked for the interior of the Fruitville Road roundabout, money that can be used anywhere in the city for alternative locations. 

Rosemary District resident David Lough told the PAC he was troubled that the U.S. 41 roundabout sculptures would be “scattered” elsewhere and expressed his hope the $369,000 could be found either in the budget or via philanthropy in order to place them in their intended locations.

“These pieces of art were custom built for a custom area. Now we're saying, ‘Oh, shucks, where can we stick these things right now?’” Lough said. “That's ($369,000) a lot of money, but it's not much money. They were done specifically for these locations. There was a degree of buy-in and it would be a shame in my opinion to compromise. I'm very mindful that money is money and politics is politics, but I would hope that there would be a some manner in which that gap could be closed and we could stick with the original vision.”

Presuming that original vision is unattainable, the PAC selected Whitaker Gateway Park as its recommendation for Poly, the location in the northwest quadrant of the 14th Street roundabout at U.S. 41. It was determined to be a natural choice because of the proximity to its intended adjacent location and in deference to the Central Cocoanut neighborhood residents who lobbied for several years for that sculpture to be there.

The stormwater retention area off the south side of the terminus of the Ringling Bridge is the first option chosen for Seagrass. Because that site is property of FDOT, however, a second option was selected — the east end of Ringling Causeway Park on the south side of the bridge — in case permitting with the state becomes untenable.

File photo

Although Where the Sun Always Shines has not yet been accepted by the City Commission, the PAC voted to place the sculpture in the roundabout at Cocoanut Avenue and Ringling Boulevard, one of two downtown roundabouts on city right of way that do not currently feature public art.

Not related to sculpture relocation, the committee also took up the city-owned Complexus, the red steel piece that formerly stood near Gulfstream Avenue that was removed for roundabout construction. With the loan of the piece at the Sarasota Art Museum expiring at the end of the year, the PAC selected a county-owned parcel at the intersection of Fruitville and Beneva roads. The committee determined that to be an appropriate location at the main gateway to downtown from Interstate 75.

Money is already set aside for Complexus, including $150,000 for relocation and $300,000 available for use in District 3, for which public art, in this case a platform for it, is eligible. 

The PAC’s recommendations are just that. The final decisions rest in the hands of the City Commission.

“I will send these recommendations to the city manager. He can then determine whether or not we need to take all of these to commission or what we're going to do,” Wallace told the committee. “I would recommend that you keep your ears open for that commission date so that maybe the chair and vice chair could make it or a couple of public art members could come to the table when we make this recommendation.”