The Rotary Club of Baton Rouge is sponsoring an international competition to design a piece of original art that will be displayed on the downtown riverfront at Florida Street and will serve as a gateway to the area.
Architect Raymond “Skipper” Post, who is on the Rotary Centennial Committee, announced the competition earlier today at the Downtown Development District’s monthly commissioner’s meeting. The winning artist will receive some $350,000 to design the artwork, which will be a signature piece that “grabs attention from blocks, even miles away,” Post said.
Later this spring the committee will put out a letter of interest, from which it expects to receive between 200 and 300 entries. A team of consultants will cull those down, first to a list of between 25 and 50 semifinalists and then to a short list of three or four. Those finalists will receive an honorarium to submit detailed designs, from which the winner will be chosen.
The local Rotary club, which is donating the downtown art as part of the Centennial Project celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2018.
DDD Executive Director Davis Rhorer says the donation is significant and “could be one of these defining moments and areas for the city.”
“This location at Florida and River Road is such an important corridor,” he says. “It’s the beginning and the end of the Downtown Greenway. Also, Florida is the connector to Livingston Parish. It’s just an incredible project.”
The artwork is scheduled to be completed in 2018.
In other business today, the DDD commissioners received an update on City Hall Plaza, currently in the design stage. The new plaza area will have three times the capacity as Galvez Plaza and will be utilized for concerts and outdoor events. See a site plan the project.
Also, the newly created DDD Maintenance Committee said it is making progress working with area utilities to clean up utility paint and construction fencing. The committee will meet later this month to discuss its ongoing cleanup and beautification efforts for downtown, which maintenance committee chairwoman Chris Nichols said isn’t as easy as it sounds.
“We can have all the lovely sculptures we want,” Nichols said. “If we’re not clean and tidy that’s what tells the story about us.” —Stephanie Riegel
