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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes AIPP 121701CITY OF PALM BEACH GARDENS • MUNICIPAL COMPLEX ART TASK FORCE December 17, 2001 The regular meeting of the Municipal Complex Art Task Force of the City of Palm Beach Gardens, started at 5:40 pm in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, FL Present David Porter Cynthia Grey Raymond Katz Caren Hackman Jeff Blakely (arrived 6:10 pm) Howard Ostrout Ted Thoburn Garri Katz Sheryl Wood (arrived 5:50pm) Absent also present: GardensArt Specialist: Amy Stepper • Ron Ferris, City Manager Jack Doughney, Assistant to City Manager Art Consultant: Joel Straus Artist: Costas Varatsos (joined meeting at 6:1Opm) Artist Representative:Costas Grimaldis (joined meeting at 6:1Opm) Approval of Minutes C. Hackman made a motion to approve the minutes from September 24" & 25th, 2001. D. Porter did 2 "a the motion. All members were in favor. Motion passed with a 7 -0 vote. S. Wood & J. Blakely had not arrived yet. Discussion: Artigras to Borrow Dreyfoos /City Banners D.Porter told the committee that the Northern Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce made a request to borrow some of the Dreyfoos School of the Arts banners that are presently hanging outside City Hall on the Plaza for their Artigras Event at Abacoa in Jupiter. R.Ferris told the committee that the City and Dreyfoos students should get proper credit. • C. Hackman asked who would choose the banners and how many would they want to • borrow. R.Ferris said they would want 15 banners and we could choose them. D.Porter said a contract should be drawn up stating all concerns. R.Fems said that would be taken care of by city attorney. D. Porter suggested that photos be taken of all banners and that publicity be done for this. Then he remembered that Eric Jablin had taken photos of all banners on his digital camera. C. Hackman thought we should document all banners individually that would be taken off of the premises. D.Porter made a motion to approve this request. T. Thobum did 2nd the motion. Motion passed unanimously with 7 -0 vote. S. Wood and J. Blakely had not arrived yet. S. Wood arrived at 5:50 pm Discussion: Presentation of Concepts and Models : Costas Varatsos J. Straus handed out evaluation forms and other documents pertaining to the presentation he prepared for the meeting. J.Straus discussed costs for Varatsos piece with concerns for steel vs. aluminum. Tax exempt issues were also discussed. D. Porter asked R. Ferris if Costas Varatsos should do his own contracting for elements such as glass and steel or should the City do it and save paying tax. D. Porter and R. • Ferris agreed that it would be better to pay the artist and let the artist deal with his own contractors and any issues that could come up. • J. Straus also spoke about that fact that the monies due to the artist should be paid out to artist in 3 installments. Payment terms were also discussed. D. Porter said that City has the contracts from Tim Prentice and Costas Varatsos and do we want to see them. D. Porter suggested that he and Sheryl Wood review the contracts, for verifying terms and specificity for meeting Task Force's concerns and then get any comments /changes back to Amy Stepper who would submit to Joel Straus and Len Rubin. Members agreed to this. D. Porter asked what happens if an artist dies before piece is complete. J. Straus said that the contract actually covers that situation. A life insurance policy would pay the City to cover any unpaid expenses or fees. Costas Varatsos and Costas Grimaldis enter Council Chambers at 6:10 pm. Jeff Blakely arrives at 6: l Opm as well. Committee gathers around laptop for a CD -rom video presentation of outdoor sculpture by Costas Varatsos. Computer generated illustrations of sculpture are presented as well. 2 A discussion of steel vs. aluminum takes place. Artist explains thickness of steel, height • of piece and how glass is `stacked' and shows how the edges of the glass create the color green. J. Blakely asked about powder coated aluminum. Artist said that he prefers to work with steel. Structural engineer for Varotsos concerned that piece is too tall and thin to take wind load if built from aluminum. Committee agrees to allow steel construction as long as all necessary precautions, coatings, and sealants properly considered to protect steel and to prevent premature deterioration and/or maintenance of the steel. D. Porter questions the lighting situation for this piece. Varatsos would rather not have artificial light and says that the glass will `collect' it's own light. D. Porter said we should look into lighting issues after piece is installed. J. Straus said contract would include artists input and recommendations re: lighting the sculpture. Issue of fiber optic lighting was suggested and captured everyone's interest. Artist will be exploring this option and getting some prices. T.Thoburn asked if water could leak inside the structure. Response from J.Straus was that edges would be re - chaulked or sealed as necessary and • any other maintenance would be done for the sculpture on a regular basis. J. Straus also added that all outdoor sculpture needs to be maintained on regular basis. D.Porter shared his thoughts that aluminum may be better with regard to the fact that it would not rust, however, that the Committee should defer to the better judgment of the structural engineer for using the material necessary to resist hurricane force winds. J.Straus really liked the fiber optic lighting idea and thought it would work best. J.Blakey asked if we could afford it as it can be very costly. J.Straus and committee agree that the piece should be lit up at night. The piece will be 35 — 40 ft off of Military Trail. Costas Varatsos then showed us his concepts for a bandshell on the plaza. The illustrations show computer illustrations of a band shell made of curved layered glass. The committee's reactions to the designs were positive. These plans were done for free by the artist, because he was intrigued by the Task Force's band shell idea for the plaza, and show concepts only. Band shell boards were put away and will be referred back to at a later date, perhaps after funds are secured for the project. Amy Stepper asked what color the steel would be. Originally artist thought he would use black, but now believes that dark grey would be used. J.Straus said that specifications for the entire piece would come in before it was built and he would monitor the project. R.Katz brought up the fact that a copper lightning rod would be necessary and need to be • put near the sculpture. This very important factor was noted by artist and J.Straus. • D.Porter said the after the final contract is approved a site plan would need to be presented to committee. Artist needs to show exactly where the sculpture would go and what if any trees and poles would need to be moved or removed. After approval signature on project, C.Varatsos and C.Grimaldis thought the sculpture could be done and installed in only 6 months. D.Porter made a motion to approve the sculpture design presented by Varotsos. J.Blakely did 2 "a the motion. The motion passed with a 9 -0 vote. Artists left and J.Straus continued with a conversation regarding the budget. The estimates submitted are over the $100,000 budget J. Straus had given to Varatsos — but still well under the original cost ($275,000) we thought we needed for the outdoor sculpture. H.Ostrout suggested that we receive another estimate when all the technical issues are worked out and all of Varotsos' drawings for the project are completed. (Steel vs. Aluminum). Artist is also to get (2) quotes on fiber optic lighting. C.Hackman brought up the tax issue again and suggested that the artist get a tax exempt number because he is actually selling his final product back to the `tax exempt' City of Palm Beach Gardens, J Straus will look into this. • Since J. Straus had provided 3 different estimates for the Varatsos piece, one for p () aluminum, one for steel and one for steel with a tax exemption, D.Porter suggested that for working purposes with the artist, we use the steel estimate that includes tax for $160,500. Once artist firms up his materials use with the various fabricators, the artist will need to then provide us with another estimate with 2 quotes for each line item (Materials). Discussion: Presentation of Concepts and Models: Tim Prentice At 7:15pm, J. Straus presented the video sent in by Tim Prentice. He also presented the half — size partial model that Prentice sent in. Committee proceeded into lobby to see the `mobile model' in the actual lobby space. Committee noted that while comparing the blueprints sent in with the model, that they would like to see each of the (3) mobile `parts' to `span' slightly longer and take up more volume within each `bay' of space. J. Straus to call artist and ask him if the pieces could be made longer. Initially, Committee was disappointed with the limited amount of reflection that the piece actually generated. J. Straus placed the model in different areas within the lobby, upstairs • and downstairs. All in an effort to position the piece to get the most play on light. This 4 was the idea of the artist (to have the piece show reflections of light in all different • directions so that the "piece" was invisible and the play of light from the piece became the art). Basically, due to the `clear' property of the Lexan planes, the mobile appeared, in most positions, to be `just a bunch of wire,' or as D. Porter put it, "like a mattress spring rotating in air." Caren Hackman and Sheryl Wood left at 7:30pm. Garri Katz left at 8:00pm. R. Katz suggested that we place the mobile near the Hanukkah menorah on the front desk. The Lexan did pick up the orange reflections of the menorah's tiny orange light bulbs. The Christmas tree ornaments and lights did the same thing on the other side of the lobby. The committee was suddenly optimistic, that with proper lighting, the clear Lexan could work. A. Stepper to note that Howard Kuhns, lighting consultant, should be called in to give us direction on adding light to the lobby to best compliment the mobile. He could also be there for the installation so that he and Prentice could confer on the best possible lighting to compliment the piece at night when no daylight is spilling into the lobby. Committee went back into Chambers to consider next steps. Three questions for artist would be: • - Is the shape of the mobile long and able to `serpentine' as we originally thought or is it more `rectangular' like the model sent in? - What should the height off the floor be and can it be adjusted to our liking at the time of installation (Committee thought it should be a foot or two higher above the floor than suggested by Prentice's drawings)? - Can the 3 pieces wave altogether and possibly seem like one piece? (Make sure we get the `wave effect' ) J.Straus called Tim Prentice at 8:10 pm. Prentice said that the LexanLexan would reflect light at any angle but thought the Lexan would get the best light from an indirect angle. He also said that the pieces could be made longer to `serpentine'. D.Porter said that perhaps the individual Lexan pieces could be longer and thus making each mobile longer. Prentice said that the height could be adjusted when we install the finished piece. J. Straus and A. Stepper said they would come back tomorrow morning to see the piece with daylight spilling into the space to see if we will get the light- reflecting qualities that Prentice says we will get from the sculpture and that were shown in the video he • submitted taken at his studio in Connecticut (no one else's schedule permitted attendance • • at the next day's daytime test). J. Straus to report his findings and opinion about the effectiveness of the piece in daylight to D. Porter. J.Blakely made a motion to adjourn the meeting. H.Ostrout did 2 °a that motion. All in favor. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm Approved: David Porter Raymond Katz q Caren Hackman Cynthia Grey CfJ Howard Ostrout Jeffrey Blakely / Garri Katz r4aV�vil Ted Thoburn Sheryl Wood 6