Sculpture placement has Public Art Committee going in circles

As troubles over where to place acquired sculptures for the U.S. 41 roundabouts at 10th and 14th streets continue, the delay is now affecting the artists whose pieces were selected years ago for those locations.

The delay was caused by bids to build the platforms on which the pieces would stand coming in at twice the just more than $500,000 budgeted, prompting city of Sarasota administration to put a halt on the program and to instruct the Public Art Committee to find alternative locations, presumably where foundations outside of Florida Department of Transportation right of way can be built at a lower cost. 

As it turns out, the concrete construction and other necessary infrastructure in city right of ways aren’t much less expensive, Public Art Coordinator Mary Davis Wallace told PAC members last week, putting the entire process on hold.

Wallace added that some local contractors have offered to bid for at least the 14th Street roundabout, but how that squares with state requirements to be FDOT-certified to do the work was not mentioned.

Meanwhile, Casto Solano, whose Seagrass sculpture is slated for 10th Street, has put a hold on fabrication until the piece has a destination. Poly, selected for 14th Street, is fabricated with nowhere to go. Poly was designed by Jia Min Nancy Hou, who has been told by its fabricator that it has to go somewhere.

“Poly is getting ready to get kicked out of the fabrication garage because the fabricators said, ‘We need you to move. We've got other stuff going on,’” Wallace said. “We've got to make a decision on Poly for sure, and that's why 14th Street is going out (to bid) at this time. If it doesn't come back with anything that we can afford, we're going to have to relocate it to plan B, which is the park across the street from the roundabout.”

Photo by Andrew Warfield

That park is Whitaker Gateway Park at the northwest quadrant of the roundabout. None of that takes into account the committee’s choice for the Fruitville Road roundabout, Sun Always Shines, by Sujin Lim. Selected in May 2023, that recommendation has yet to be forwarded to the Sarasota City Commission for final consideration because of the platform problems.

Time may become of the essence. GreenPointe Developers, the master developer of The Quay, has paid $250,000 into the public art fund to satisfy requirements for Block 6 of the development. That money was earmarked for the Fruitville Road roundabout. In addition, discussions haven’t even begun on what to do in the Gulfstream Avenue roundabout.

“We have yet to receive a feasible bid that is not going to break the entire fund at this point,” Wallace said of the sculpture foundations. “We don't even have enough money in the fund today. I would like to get 10th and 14th (streets) resolved and then move to Fruitville and Gulfstream.”

The city had budgeted $514,000 for construction of both 10th and 14th street roundabout pads. One bid was initially received for the work, submitted by Jon F. Swift Construction, at $743,651.70 for 10th Street and $389,737.70 for 14th Street. The $1.13 million total is $834,889 more than the cost of both sculptures combined. A subsequent bid was adjusted downward slightly, but not enough to prevent the city from looking elsewhere to place the sculptures.

Then prices came in for city right of way locations.

“The estimates that we received for non-FDOT roundabouts were not much less, so I'm not sure if it's not just cost of construction at this point,” Wallace said.

The city’s public art fund does have $200,000 designated for a sculpture in the Gulfstream Drive roundabout. The desired installation there represents the first “developer wish” agreement — with Epoch Towers developer Seaward Development — for its required contribution to the city’s public art collection. 

“We have an agreement with the developer to put a piece in the roundabout that is specific to them,” Wallace said of the Gulfstream circle. “There’s no written agreement. There's no contract, but they had a wish. This was our first developer wish agreement where they said we would really like to work with us to place it in the roundabout. I think Epoch Towers probably expected this to be done by now, but this group needs to determine if we're going to pursue the art in the roundabouts program, and that's a larger discussion that we need to have.”

In September 2023, the PAC selected its preferred alternate location for sculptures originally destined for the roundabouts. Those recommendations have not yet been placed on the City Commission agenda for consideration.