Title
Recommendation to Review and Select Final Primary Sites for Future Physical Public Art
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Public Art Commission
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This staff report details the results of an initial analysis of possible sites for future physical public art installations. At its June 17, 2024 meeting, the Public Art Commission (PAC) was presented with five priority locations for future Public Art:
1. Main Street Ferry Terminal
2. Lincoln Park
3. Washington Park
4. Central & Encinal Roundabout
5. 4th & Central Roundabout
The PAC suggested that additional sites be reviewed and that more weight be given to the Visibility criteria for ranking sites. Additionally, staff are suggesting consideration of the new construction of the Alameda Aquatic Center which offers an exciting opportunity as a potential public art location. As a result, three additions were made to the previous primary site list for the PAC to choose from. The top eight (8) primary locations are:
1. Alameda Aquatic Center
2. Main Street Ferry Terminal
3. Washington Park
4. Central & Encinal Roundabout
5. Lincoln Park
6. 4th & Central Roundabout
7. Park & Santa Clara
8. Neptune Park
Staff is recommending that the PAC review the proposed locations and select three (3) locations for staff to consider including in a physical art Request for Qualifications (RFQ).
BACKGROUND
Project History
On December 19, 2023, the Alameda City Council adopted the five-year Public Art Master Plan (Plan) to guide the implementation of Alameda’s public art program, in alignment with the vision and goals of the City Council, PAC, and Alameda community. The Plan outlines tasks to implement seven key recommendations, including the need to “develop a process for identifying sites for public art in the future.” Furthermore, the Plan targets in Year 2 to “select a site and release a grant application for physical artworks”.
After conducting public outreach and receiving feedback from the PAC to inform physical art site selection and future site selection processes, staff plan to release a competitive RFQ for physical art. The RFQ will include a pre-identified site or sites for physical art. There is currently approximately $973,340.00 available in the Public Art Fund for physical art. The City of Alameda’s (City’s) Public Art Ordinance (Alameda Municipal Code Section 30-98) requires commercial, industrial, and municipal development projects costing $250,000 or more to devote one percent (1%) of building development costs for public art in City. It should be noted that the number of development applications have slowed, therefore the current Fund balance must sustain public art projects in the City for the next several years.
Jack Denham Conroy is a Public Art Fellow for the City, selected through a partnership with CivicSpark, an AmeriCorps program. In addition to implementing the Plan, the analysis and selection of future public art sites is his capstone project for his fellowship.
Initial Priority Locations
In March 2024, staff developed the following criteria to narrow down a list of 39 locations for future public art. Each location was given a score of 1-10 for each of six criteria, creating six unique scores for each potential site.
The scores were based on research in those criteria areas covering Alameda’s General Plan, Public Art Master Plan, Pedestrian Plan, Annual Report on Transportation, and Vision Zero, as well as independent site analysis. The scores from the six criteria were then added together and averaged, using a weighted scoring that reflected staff’s emphasis on geographic equity. This created an overall score for each location (Exhibit 1).
Based on criteria, the following 12 locations had the highest average score of the original 39 considered locations:
1. Main Street Ferry Terminal
2. Lincoln Park
3. Krusi Park
4. Towata Park
5. Godfrey Park
6. Shoreline Park
7. Tillman Park
8. Franklin Park
9. Portola Triangle
10. Washington Park
11. 4th & Central Roundabout
12. Central & Encinal Roundabout
These 12 locations were then included in a public art survey to garner community input on which locations were preferred by people who live or work in Alameda.
Community Engagement
The Plan describes the need to take “into consideration the cultural context, existing infrastructure, community involvement, and potential impact on the surrounding environment.” The community involvement for this process took place between April 21 and June 7, 2024. It involved tabling at local community events such as a Radium Runway performance, and a Performance Arts and Learning event at Woodstock Park. Staff spoke with people who live or work in the City and asked that they take a survey to share their thoughts on where future public art should be in Alameda. The survey (see Exhibit 3) asked respondents to rank the 12 potential locations from most to least desired.
The survey also gave respondents an opportunity to suggest sites that were not listed that they thought would be good to consider in future iterations of this site selection process. There were 45 suggested locations received from community members. Several suggested locations were around Park Street and the Webster Gateway near Neptune Park (see Exhibit 4 for a map of community suggested locations).
The survey was also sent to the Public Art and citywide email lists, as well as posted to the City’s Facebook page. The survey gathered 307 responses, and that response data was then put back into the location analysis spreadsheet (Exhibit 2) as the final criteria to complete the scoring of the locations. The five that scored highest were as follows:
1. Main Street Ferry Terminal
2. Lincoln Park
3. Washington Park
4. Central & Encinal Roundabout
5. Franklin Park
These five (5) locations were the initial primary sites for future physical public art that the PAC reviewed at its June 17, 2024 meeting.
DISCUSSION
At the June 17 meeting, the PAC suggested that the initial priority locations be reevaluated, giving more weight to the Visibility criteria, and that additional sites be reviewed.
Revision of Priority Locations
As a result, staff:
• Conducted the original analysis again, increasing the weight of the visibility criteria from 15% to 25%
• Added a 5-point Community Input ranking for locations suggested by more than three community members in the optional section of the Public Art Survey; Park & Santa Clara intersection, Neptune Park, and Ballena Bay Yacht Harbor (Exhibit 5)
• Created a Revised Priority Locations list that includes increased visibility ranking and the additional sites with community input
Alameda Aquatic Center
Before the September PAC meeting, the Alameda Recreation and Parks Department (ARPD) gave a presentation to City Council surrounding the new Aquatic Center. When the Aquatic Center site was added to the location scoring spreadsheet it scored twelfth out of 41 locations without incorporating the community input criteria. This ranking and staff support for this location is primarily due to:
• high visibility from walking/biking trails and future location of events
• opportunities to integrate public art into the construction process and leverage a higher impact project
• emphasis of ARPD programming on equity, allowing a greater diversity of Alamedans to access and enjoy public art
• opportunities for cross departmental collaboration between Economic Development and ARPD
The Aquatic Center had not been on the initial list nor in the community survey as it had not yet been recommended by City Council as a possible project. But because of the top twelve initial ranking and these key benefits, staff recommends the Alameda Aquatic Center be included as a priority location for future public art.
Final Priority Locations
Based on the revised visibility ranking, community input, and additional locations suggested by PAC and staff, staff developed a list of final priority locations for public art. The list includes
• the top 5 sites from the Revised Priority Locations analysis
• two additional sites that received PAC support and considerable community support in the public art survey (Park & Santa Clara, and Neptune Park), and
• the staff-recommended Alameda Aquatic Center.
Staff is suggesting that the PAC consider these suggested primary sites and make a final selection of three locations for staff to consider when creating an RFQ for Public Art.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
Public Art Ordinance, AMC Section 30-98.3.b.4 and City of Alameda Public Art Master Plan.
RECOMMENDATION
Review the proposed primary future public art locations and select three locations for staff to include in the creation of a physical art RFQ.
Respectfully submitted,
Jackie Keliiaa, Economic Development Division Manager
Secretary
By,
Jack Denham Conroy, Public Art Fellow
Exhibits:
1. Initial Future Public Art Site Analysis
2. Final Future Public Art Location Ranking with Community Input
3. Public Art Survey
4. Map of Community Suggested Locations for Future Public Art
5. New Ranking with Increased Weighing for Visibility Criteria and Additional Sites