Title
A Resolution approving the concept for a work of public art by Michele Oka Doner in conjunction with The Plaza Coral Gables development project at 2901 Ponce De Leon Boulevard in fulfillment of the Art in Public Places requirement for public art in private development (unanimously recommended by the Arts Advisory Panel approval/denial vote: 7 to 0, and the Cultural Development Board approval/denial vote: 7 to 0).
Body
Agave Plaza Trustee (the “Developer”) is constructing a mixed-use project at 2901 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, The Plaza (the “Project”). The Developer has chosen the option of petitioning for a waiver of the Art in Public Places Fee requirement by acquiring and installing artwork within the project as specified in the Zoning Code, Article 3, Division 21.
The Agave development team met artist Michele Oka Doner at her studio in New York and invited her to propose an outdoor piece for one of the green spaces on The Plaza. Ms. Doner proposed a monumental ritual ring bench and bronze table circling a large specimen Oak tree. The proposed 17 (seventeen) foot diameter bench includes surface details bringing an aesthetic nod to the fauna of South Florida. The bronze material speaks of timelessness and endurance and will be a patinated green applied by hand to create a stippled effect to enhance the feeling of deep shade provided by the leafy dome of the majestic oak, playing with the notion of sunlight moving through the leaves. Their circular forms promote community while encouraging people of all ages to sit and pause for a moment of reflection.
Following review by the Arts Advisory Panel, Ms. Doner expanded the breadth of the work to include integrated lighting elements above and custom paving surrounding the artwork.
Michele Oka Doner is an internationally acclaimed artist whose career spans four decades. Her artistic medium encompasses sculpture, public art, functional objects, and more. Oka Doner's work is fueled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world from which she derives her formal vocabulary. She is well known for creating numerous public art installations throughout the United States, including Radiant Site at New York’s Herald Square subway, Flight at Washington’s Reagan International Airport and A Walk on the Beach at The Miami International Airport (1995-2010), which features nine thousand unique bronze sculptures inlaid over a mile-and-a-quarter long concourse of terrazzo with mother-of-pearl, one of the largest public artworks in the world. Oka Doner’s other public art projects can be found in federal courthouses, public libraries, hospitals, universities, other transportation centers and public parks.
Oka Doner is represented by Marlborough Gallery, New York. In addition to major solo exhibitions at Marlborough, her artwork can be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Dallas Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Yale Art Gallery and the Princeton University Art Museum, among others.
The concept proposal is attached as Exhibit A to the proposed Resolution.
The cost of the proposed art piece and installation is estimated to be $689,000 (six hundred eighty-nine dollars) which is less than the required 1% of the Project’s total art in public places fee estimate of $4,100,000 (four million, one hundred thousand dollars). The Developer has expressed the intent to submit additional proposed artworks and restoration of the historical building on site to make up the difference in cost. Should this not occur, the difference will be issued as a check for deposit into the Art Acquisition Fund.
The Arts Advisory Panel and the Cultural Development Board voted unanimously to recommend the artwork at their respective meetings on June 24, 2020 and July 7, 2020.
The Developer is required to provide for the perpetual maintenance of the artwork, which will be the sole responsibility of the Developer, in accordance with a restrictive covenant entered into with the City of Coral Gables and following the Art in Public Places: Funding, Goals, and Implementation Guidelines.