City Seeks Designer & Artist for Congress Square Redesign Project

PORTLAND, Maine – The City of Portland’s Planning & Urban Development Department, in partnership with the Portland Public Art Committee and the Friends of Congress Square Park, is announcing an open call for landscape designers and visual artists to create concepts for the Congress Square Redesign project. The City has released two Requests for Qualifications (RFQ) to hire a design team and an artist to concurrently develop schematic designs for the intersection and a public art commission. Responses to the open call will be collected until January 28, 2016. Applicants will be reviewed by selection committees and finalists will be invited to a site visit, interview, and public forum to present their work. The public forum, to be held in March, 2016, creates an opportunity for the community to learn about the prospective consultants and provide input about the finalists.

The City currently has funds to develop schematic level concepts for the Congress Square
intersection and public artwork. The concepts will be used to help raise money to implement the project. The City is also pursuing grant opportunities to fund the endeavor; the project team applied for a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant in October.

"This is an exciting step for the future of Congress Square," said Jeff Levine, Planning & Urban Development Director for the City of Portland. "However, people should remember that any approved implementation will require significant fundraising efforts."

Congress Square is the heart of the Arts District and a center of activity for neighborhood residents and the arts community attending the First Friday Art Walk and events coordinated by the Friends of Congress Square Park. The Square also provides an important first impression for visitors to the Portland Museum of Art and the Westin Hotel and serves as a neighborhood open space for surrounding residents.

For many years, the City and Portland residents have debated how best to revitalize Congress Square. The Congress Square redesign has become a public-private partnership that includes efforts by City planners, working with the Friends of Congress Square Park and the Portland Public Art Committee, to advance redesign of this important part of Portland. In 2012, the Public Art Committee selected the Square as the next site for a major public art acquisition and has saved funds since that time for this project. The Committee receives 0.5% of the City’s Capital Improvement Project budget each year for conservation of existing artwork and acquisition of new art. In 2014, an art selection panel was created to focus on the Congress Square public art process and is comprised of stakeholders from the Portland Museum of Art, Maine College of Art, the Westin, Friends of Congress Square Park, SPACE Gallery, Portland Society for Architecture, and the Public Art Committee.  The Public Art Committee is excited for this unique opportunity to commission original artwork in collaboration with the landscape design.  Since 2013, the Friends of Congress Square Park has made dramatic improvements to the public open space by deploying temporary furniture and art installations, events programming, and taking on the responsibility of park maintenance and stewardship.

In 2014, the Friends of Congress Square Park, working with Project for Public Spaces, was awarded the Southwest Heart of the Community grant to fund its activities and collect data on the use of the park. The group now has a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with the City to act as placemaking managers providing amenities and events. The results from these efforts are incorporated into the work plan for the project moving forward.

The RFQs are available on the City’s website: http://www.portlandmaine.gov/1034/BidsRFP-Search

Additional resources about Congress Square Redesign project, including the community vision statement and results of the 2013 visioning process can be found at: http://www.portlandmaine.gov/1113/Congress-Square-Redesign.

For more information about the Portland Public Art Committee and the City’s Public Art Collection, visit www.publicartportland.org.