Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times; Date:Jun 14, 2009
Extra racks at courts building helps with LEED certification
BY ROBIN MERO Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville is seeking proposals for the design of two bike racks for the front of the new district court building under construction on Rock Street.
From the construction budget, the city will pay $1,400 each for the two sculptures — each built to hold two bikes.
There are safety, design and durability concerns, but otherwise the artist can be creative and innovative. The deadline for proposals is July 2, and a selection committee will announce a winner July 27, Leif Olson, an associate planner for Fayetteville, said.
More information and an application are available at www.accessfayetteville.org or by contacting Olson at lolson@ci.fayetteville.ar.us or by phone at (479) 575-8269.
Bike rack art is growing popular in many cities, such as New York City and Louisville, Ky., Olson said. Olsen saw information about artistic racks in the New York Times and raised the idea as a possibility locally.
“It seemed to be a great way to promote art and public sculpture,” Olson said.
One of 15 initiatives that emerged as priorities from this spring’s Fayetteville Forward economic summit is creating a funding source for public art throughout parks, trails and public spaces.
“I love it, I think it has a dual purpose — functioning as a bike rack but also being something people notice, remember and talk about,” Alderman Matthew Petty, who is on the selection committee, said.
The new 15,000-squarefoot district court is the first building constructed under the city’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certification standards.
According to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Web site, which awards the LEED certification, this is the “nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.”
Each level of certification requires a specific number of points, achieved through design elements and materials that reduce a building’s impact on the environment — thus reducing utility costs.
City code requires the building have four bike racks, according to the number of parking spaces, Olson said. The city plans to have racks for a dozen bikes, giving the building more credit toward its certification as a LEED building.
Each standard bike rack, with a capacity of two bikes, costs around $200. Four of those are expected to be installed along with the two more costly artistic versions.
Olson said District Judge Rudy Moore has been very supportive of pursuing the artistic racks.
“Hopefully the city will see it and like it, and we can put this in our code to give developers an option other than standard, u-shaped racks,” Olson said.
The finished work must be delivered for installation by Sept. 25.
“This is the first time we’ve done something like this, so we’re trying to get the word out to all artists — even if they don’t typically work in this medium,” he said. “People may want to collaborate. This could be two artists with two designs, or one artist with two designs.”
