Asphalt Art Guide How to Reclaim City Roadways and Public Infrastructure with Art A A 3 ABOUT THE GUIDE 9 CASE STUDIES 12 Art in the Roadway 34 Art in Pedestrian Space 48 Art on Vertical Infrastructure 65 TOOLS & TACTICS 68 Project Initiation 74 Assembling a Team 79 Managing a Budget 82 Design Development 90 Engaging the Community 92 Implementing the Project 96 Maintenance and Stewardship 100 Project Evaluation ABOUT BLOOMBERG PHILANTHROPIES Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 510 cities and 129 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consultancy that works in cities around the world. In 2018, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $767 million. Cover photo: The Oval, Philadelphia, PA (Case study on page 31). Mural by Jessie and Katey. Photo by Steve Weinik. © Bloomberg Philanthropies Support LLC 2019. All rights reserved. B A MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG Public art has the power to reshape the way we experience our cities. We saw that time and again during my time as Mayor of New York City: art could remake streets and improve public safety, inspire people, draw in visitors, and enhance residents’ quality of life. And when we combined our public art projects with our efforts to strengthen city infrastructure through new public plazas or bike lanes, we created even safer, more vibrant streets for everyone. Now, we’re working to share our experience and enliven streets and plazas around the world. Bloomberg Associates, our pro bono consulting firm that advises cities worldwide, has worked in collaboration with the experts at Street Plans Collaborative and with public art consultant Renee Piechocki to produce this guide for cities and city leaders. The Asphalt Art Guide highlights more than two dozen art installations on streets, sidewalks, plazas, and utility boxes in cities across the U.S. and the world. We hope these case studies inspire more cities to develop and pursue their own projects to brighten city infrastructure and enhance neighborhoods. The guide also includes practical tips and best practices to help city agencies, community organizations, and artists carry out successful asphalt art installations. Every project is unique, and every city will have its own approach — that’s part of what makes this work so dynamic. But we believe that by sharing lessons we learned in New York City, and that dozens of others have learned through their own projects, we can give more city leaders the tools and inspiration to create brighter, safer, more welcoming streets for residents and visitors alike. B 1 ABOUT THE GUIDE Asphalt Art on City Streets and Public Infrastructure IDE U G the O B A UT Cities and citizens around the world are recognizing Taken together, these relatively low-cost, often short- the potential of art to reimagine roadways and vertical term and scalable projects can create immediate positive infrastructure, improving street safety, revitalizing impact and catalyze long-term improvements to the public spaces, and bringing communities together. The public realm. increasing demand for these arts-driven transportation The Guide documents a wide variety of project projects has inspired the creation of this Guide. Our goal types and champions — from formal city-sanctioned is to share ideas and step-by-step tips for city agencies, programs to citizen-driven interventions. It also community groups, and artists interested in undertaking identifies key considerations, including liability and these kinds of projects. permitting, community engagement, artist curation, While cities incorporate art into public spaces in a variety and installation methods. of ways, the specific focus of this Guide is what we’re calling asphalt art: visual interventions on roadways (intersections and crosswalks), pedestrian spaces (plazas and sidewalks), and vertical infrastructure (utility boxes, traffic barriers, and underpasses). 4 ASPHALT ART GUIDE ART ASPHALT Colourful Crossings, London, UK Every city and every street are different. Not all the (Case study on page 23) examples or processes in these pages will be relevant Mural by Office for Crafted Architecture to every project, and not all streets are appropriate Photo by Better Bankside candidates for these kinds of treatments. But with the right local teams, sites, and projects, asphalt art has been proven to reshape the public realm quickly, affordably, and effectively. By gathering insights and advice from dozens of projects around the world, the Asphalt Art Guide can inspire and inform professionals, advocates, and residents looking to make their streets and communities safer, more attractive, and more welcoming. 4 5 About the Authors BLOOMBERG ASSOCIATES STREET PLANS COLLABORATIVE Bloomberg Associates is a philanthropic consulting Street Plans is an internationally recognized urban organization founded by Michael R. Bloomberg in planning and architecture firm with offices in New York 2014. We work side by side with client cities to improve and Miami. We believe that the key to creating healthy, the quality of life for residents, taking a strategic, prosperous communities rests in the design of great collaborative, and results-oriented approach to make streets and public spaces. We work with clients to cities stronger, safer, more equitable, and efficient. identify ways to create and activate public spaces, while Our team of globally recognized experts and industry at the same time designing streets and neighborhoods leaders has worked with cities across the globe on that make it easy and safe to bike, walk, and take transit. hundreds of projects in order to ignite change and Street Plans is recognized as the leading global transform dynamic vision into reality. practitioner of tactical urbanism, which is an approach The Transportation team, led by Janette Sadik-Khan, to neighborhood-building using short-term, low-cost, THORS former Commissioner of the New York City Department and scalable interventions to catalyze long-term change. U A of Transportation, helps city leaders leverage their We’ve produced over a dozen publications on street street infrastructure to deliver smarter, safer street design and public space. Principals Mike Lydon and designs that improve mobility for people on foot, Tony Garcia are the authors of the acclaimed Tactical O bicycle, or transit. Urbanism, published by Island Press in 2015. For their AB UT THE contributions to the field of architecture and planning, The Cultural Assets Management team, led by Kate D. they were awarded the Seaside Prize in 2017. Levin, former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, works to make the For more information on our work, visit street-plans.com creative sector a vital element of each client city’s or follow us on Twitter @StreetPlans. economy, identity, and quality of life. Street Plans Project Team: For more information on the consultancy, please visit Tony Garcia bloombergassociates.org or follow us on Twitter Mike Lydon @BloombergAssoc. Irene Balza Dana Wall Bloomberg Associates Project Team: David Andersson Tracey Knuckles RENEE PIECHOCKI Nicholas Mosquera Renee Piechocki is passionate about developing projects Andy Wiley-Schwartz and initiatives to engage artists and communities in the Design: public realm. She is an artist, administrator, advocate, Bloomberg L.P. and consultant. In recognition of her contributions to the field, she received the 2018 PublicA rt Network Leadership Award from Americans for the Arts. 6 The Guide is organized into two distinct sections: How to Use Case Studies — A look book of 26 asphalt art projects from around the world. Led by either a municipal agency or the local community, each description includes general background as well as a “best the Guide practice” highlight detailing a particularly noteworthy aspect of that project. Tools & Tactics — An overview and discussion of key process steps for planning a project, as well as pro tips for aspiring asphalt artists. This summary of best practices includes information on community Piazze Aperte Porta Genova project, Milan, Italy involvement, materials, and design as well as project (Case study on page 45) Photo by Bloomberg Philanthropies implementation and maintenance. ASPHALT ART GUIDE ART ASPHALT C STUDIESE A S 6 7 CASE STUDIES CAE S STUDIES 10 Case Studies This section takes a close look at 26 projects from around the world implemented in the past decade, showcasing the variety of successful ways to incorporate artwork on city streets and public infrastructure. Each project team has a story to share about its challenges and keys to success. Some of the highlighted installations were one-off projects, while others were part of ongoing initiatives. Project organizers range from city agencies to nonprofit organizations, neighborhood groups, or even individual artists. The initiating impulses for the projects often include traffic calming as well as community-building and celebrating cultural identity within a neighborhood. The case studies include information on project attributes like material types and associated costs, design and engineering justifications, project creators, installation methods, collaborative strategies, project C STUDIESE