UF ASB 653 DCP Collaboratory

The Art in State Buildings Program at the University of Florida will commission an artist or artist team to create an exterior, site-specific, work of art for the UF College of Design, Construction and Planning’s Bruno E. and Maritza F. Ramos Collaboratory, in Gainesville, FL. 

The site for art is exterior and all appropriate media will be considered.

The total budget for this project is $100,000 for finalists’ interview presentations, committee interactions, research, creation, and installation of finalized work of site-specific art.  Finalists will receive an honorarium for their interview presentation.  Finalists will not be asked to make a site visit before the interview presentation.  The total amount of each honorarium will be determined based on the number of finalists (up to 4). The final art budget is between $98,000- $99,500.

Location: UF College of Design, Construction and Planning Bruno E. and Maritza F. Ramos Collaboratory, Gainesville, FL

Art Budget: The art budget is between $98,000-$99,500.

Honoraria: Finalists will receive an honorarium to give an artist presentation. Essentially an interview, this method allows the Committee to take a closer look at the background, previous works, and artwork style of each finalist, i.e., the Committee reviews/selects the artist rather than the artwork. The Committee shall work with the selected artist(s) to develop a proposal and then choose the actual artwork for the site.

Site for Art: The North Lawn

Above all else, the committee is interested in exceptional art for an exceptional new building.  The concepts and function of the art beyond the aesthetic are also important considerations.  Ideas such as creativity, collaboration, engagement, and learning landscape were discussed. Interactive art such as landscape art, shade creation, seating elements, kinetic art, art as hammocks as well as art that incorporates teaching elements such as possibilities in materials, fabrication, technique or experimental ideas will all be considered.     

The lawn narrows towards the north and consists of a raingarden along the new building to the west side and traditional lawn along the east side. The raingarden area is approx. 7,600 sq. ft. and the traditional lawn area is approx. 7,500 sq. ft. Additional information will be provided to finalists.  

Please see renderings and video of the new DCP Collaboratory in the attached document. 

Informational Text:

DCP Collaboratory:

The mission of the College of Design Construction and Planning (DCP) is to improve the quality of the built and natural environments through offering exceptional educational and professional programs and research/scholarship initiatives that address the planning, design, construction, and preservation of the built and natural environments.

DCP’s vision is to be recognized globally as a preeminent College for teaching, research, creative scholarship, and outreach in the built and natural environments.

The University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning is building a new 50,000-square foot facility named the Bruno E. and Maritza F. Ramos Collaboratory. This revolutionary, best-in-class facility is intended to bring generational change to UF and will position the College, its faculty, staff, and students for success over the next 100 years.

Upon its completion, the Ramos Collaboratory will reflect real-world industry best practice in its instructional laboratories, maker spaces, research facilities and student collaboration spaces. This will allow the college to capitalize on the strengths of its individual units, nurture multidisciplinary partnerships and outperform its national peers. The research momentum and instructional excellence fostered within the new facility will attract top-flight students and faculty and cultivate a vibrant innovation culture, where faculty, students, alumni and industry partners are equipped to forge out-of-the-box solutions to society’s most pressing problems.

The design for the Ramos Collaboratory was awarded to Brooks+Scarpa Architects, which is led by DCP graduates Angela Brooks (BDES ’87), Larry Scarpa (BDES ’81, MARCH ’87) and Jeffrey Huber (BDES ’02, MARCH ’04). The Los Angeles and Florida-based firm recently received the 2022 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal Award, the most prestigious award in the architecture discipline. Fellow DCP graduates Eric Kleinsteuber (BDES ’02, MARCH ’04) of KMF Architects, Laurie Hall (BLAE ’09) of CHW and Cat Lindsay (BDES ’86) of Lindsay Newman Architecture and Design are collaborating with Brooks+Scarpa on the building design and campus integration.

Standing at the nexus of disciplines that will define how societies live, move, and thrive in the next century, the project will ensure our built and natural environments are ready for a new era of resiliency. Since the current architecture building was originally constructed in 1979, the college requires a collaborative facility that is equipped to enhance the quality of our students’ learning experience, fuel our partnerships and catalyze our existing strengths.

As a result, the new facility will feature functional spaces such as:

1.      A reconfigurable, multi-functional space known as Creative Collisions Commons, where students, faculty and staff can collaborate on a formal or informal basis.

2.      A brand-new Research Hub that will house DCP research centers and institutes and allow faculty and graduate students to freely exchange ideas and work collaboratively to undertake high impact research that addresses critical societal challenges.

3.      A Digital Modeling and Fabrication Space which will enable larger multidisciplinary groups of students to work together on digital models, simulations and 3D printing in purpose-designed facilities. In addition, large-scale facilities for geospatial modeling and simulation, as well as a virtual reality lab, will also be contained in this space.

4.      A Large Multipurpose Hall (and seminar rooms) that will accommodate lecture audiences of 150–200 for annual events such as the Edward D. Stone, Jr. Lecture Series, Research Symposium, Women of Influence, and the Ernest R. Bartley Memorial Lecture Series.

5.      Larger, newer educational spaces which will offer instructional rooms with physical and enhanced technological capabilities to support design-based learning and teaching.

6.      A Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) Lab where students will use state-of-the-art facilities to work on revolutionary digital modeling, learn enhanced computational design and artificial intelligence, and master building information modeling.

Overall, the Ramos Collaboratory will enhance the college’s ability to educate students and conduct research for the real world. By reflecting the highly integrated nature of design, construction, planning, civil engineering, real estate and more, this addition will embody the daily reality of our synergistic fields.

University of Florida:

Located in the heart of North Central Florida, the University of Florida (http://ufl.edu) is one of America’s premier public Universities and is the first Florida school to break into the list of top 10 best public universities, coming in at No. 5, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings.  The University of Florida is one of the largest universities in the United States and students from more than 100 countries attend UF’s 20 colleges and 100 interdisciplinary research and education centers and institutes. 

UF has a 2,000-acre campus and more than 900 buildings, including the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum- certified building in the state of Florida. 

Florida’s Art in State Buildings Program:

The Art in State Buildings (ASB) Program acquires artwork for new public facilities built with state funds. The program requires that up to .5% of the construction appropriation be set aside to acquire artwork for permanent display in, on or around the facility.

Since the program began in 1979, more than 1,000 works of art have been purchased or commissioned for Florida public spaces. You'll find them in nearly every Florida county, in locations such as state office buildings, Department of Transportation complexes, Department of Health facilities, courthouses, throughout state university and college campuses.

Application Requirements

A brief Letter of Interest describing why your artwork is appropriate for the project and how the submitted images relate to the project requirements. Artists may also briefly describe their history, training, experience, and a notion of their concept for this project. 

Current professional Resumé, with emphasis on public art experience

Ten (10) to 20 Digital Images of artworks- The first five images will be seen in the initial blind review.  Do not provide images with the Artist name or watermark. Our program requires a “blind” review.  Only artwork with sound or motion may be submitted as a video file. Up to 6 video files may be submitted and each file counts as an “image” in the 20 allowable. 

3 References: Please include both recent and former references. 

Eligibility Criteria

Artist has met at least two (2) of the following:

·         The artist’s works are included in private, public, corporate or museum, collections;

·         The artist has received awards, grants or fellowships;

·         The artist has completed other public commissions on a similar scale;

The artist has participated in exhibitions at major museums or galleries.

For consideration, your submitted resumé MUST demonstrate that you meet at least 2 of the listed criteria.