- January 20, 2025
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Now that Poly has finally been installed in the roundabout at the 14th Street, the city and its new public art administrator, Ciera Coleman, will set about the task of determining what’s next for the plan to install sculptures in three other roundabouts along U.S. 41.
Prior to the skyrocketing construction and materials costs in the aftermath of COVID-19, the plan to install sculptures in roundabouts at 10th Street, Fruitville Road and Gulfstream Avenue was central to the city’s Art in the Roundabouts program. The dual purpose is to highlight Sarasota’s arts legacy by placing significant pieces in high-profile locations while enhancing safety by serving as a visual cue on the approach to the traffic circles.
Fabrication of Poly was delayed beginning in early 2020 because of global supply chain issues after the beginning of the pandemic, and installation stalled by the quickly escalating cost far exceeding pre-COVID estimates.
The city had budgeted $514,000 for construction of roundabout pads at 10th and 14th streets. For the first round of bidding, only one was submitted — that by Jon F. Swift Construction — at $743,651.70 for 10th Street and $389,737.70 for 14th Street, a total of $1,133,380.40. That was more than double the $514,000 the city had budgeted for the two foundations.
The City Commission then directed the Public Art Committee — then under the leadership of Mary Davis Wallace, the city’s former public art administrator — to identify alternate locations for the Poly and Seagrass, which was the piece selected for 10th Street. The thought at the time was, because of the more rigid Florida Department of Transportation standards for installing art on a state highway, and the few contractors authorized to do so, it would be less expensive to place those and other pieces on city right of way.
As it turned out, not so much.
More rounds of bidding finally reduced the installation cost of Poly to $340,906.50, which the City Commission approved on July 15.
That leaves Coleman, the Public Art Committee and the City Commission to wrestle with what happens with Seagrass, which still awaits fabrication, and eventually perhaps The Sun Always Shines, which was chosen by the committee but has yet to be considered for approval by commissioners.
None of that, Senior Communications Manager Jan Thornburg said, is likely to be a topic of discussion until after naming a new city manager.
“One of the elements that staff is keeping in mind not just in the public art area, but many of our departments, is that we are launching a search for a new city manager,” Thornburg said. “When we get a new city manager on board, this will be one of the areas that that individual will be looking at and taking into consideration.”
Like Poly, Seagrass is specifically selected for its intended location, further complicating the placement of the sculpture. The committee did identify possible locations for both Seagrass and The Sun Always Shines, but that matter has not advanced to the City Commission.
“I expect we're going to be looking at all of the options and probably bringing them to the City Commission at some point in the future,” Coleman said. “I can't really speak to any kind of timeline on that, but we're definitely looking at it all the options, and then it will end up going to the commission for what their direction is.”
Included in that relocation discussion is the city’s signature sculpture, Complexus, which is in the midst of an extended stay at the Sarasota Art Museum having been removed from its prior location for the construction of the Gulfstream Avenue roundabout. But first, Complexus needs its own work.
“We're going to reach out to the John Henry studio for further evaluation of the structural integrity,” Coleman said of Complexus. “It's beyond the scheduled maintenance plan. It had a 10-year maintenance plan when it was donated in 2012, although it was painted in 2022, so now we need to look at structural integrity or anything like that.”
