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Artwork to add class to convention center
Tuesday, October 27, 1998 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Athletes, team owners and sports fans aren't the only ones who will benefit from Plan B, the $809 million proposal for building two new stadiums and a larger convention center in Pittsburgh.
Artists also will benefit -- to the tune of $2 million -- once the Public Auditorium Authority completes work on something it began yesterday.
The authority accepted a $500,000 donation from the Vira I. Heinz Foundation to use in commissioning new art pieces to be placed in the expanded David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
Officials hope to get another $500,000 from other local foundations. A state matching grant of $1 million will be added to that, for a total of $2 million to pay artists to design works to brighten the now-dowdy convention center.
The total cost of enlarging the undersized center is put at about $263 million. Mary A. Navarro, a program officer with the Heinz Endowments, said it's customary for an amount equivalent to 1 percent of a project's cost to be spent on art.
"We didn't want to lose the opportunity to have a significant public art component" with the expanded convention center, she said.
Including artwork in a public building isn't unprecedented, Navarro said. It was done with the $800 million Pittsburgh International Airport, which opened in 1992, and has been done in other cities.
A remodeled National Airport in Washington, D.C., will include an elaborate tiled medallion as part of the floor in the terminal, and also will have a long, stained-glass panel along a wall, Navarro said.
A science center in Los Angeles has a ceiling prism that divides white light into colors, and the Kansas City, Mo., convention center has large mounted pieces, including pedestals with lighted globes on top.
The city also has a requirement that 1 percent of a building's cost be spent on artwork.
"Art enhances the design of the architecture and has the capacity to enliven some of the large public spaces," she said. "It also creates interest points for visitors."
To decide on the artwork, a committee will be formed with arts professionals, citizens and members of the Convention Center Design Commission, a panel currently overseeing the $267 million expansion of the center.
The artwork committee will work closely with the architectural firm chosen to design the expansion. Four firms are now competing for the right to do the design, with the design commission to make its choice in February.
The Public Auditorium Authority took two other actions yesterday related to the expansion. Using a $75,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments, it retained art consultants Carol Goldstein and Marc Pally to work on the upcoming art project. They also are working on artwork for an urban renewal project on the South Side.
Stephen Leeper, auditorium authority executive director, said outside assistance was needed. "To me, art is (a picture of) five dogs playing poker," he quipped.
Also, the authority hired, for a fee not to exceed $980,000, the firm of Morse Diesel International to help it oversee the expansion. The firm will check the successful architectural firm's cost estimates, help with purchasing the property needed for the expansion and with razing existing buildings on the land, and oversee the scheduling of the construction work.
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