Flat Lot Competition

The American Institute of Architects – Flint and Flint Public Art Project announce the first annual Flat Lot Competition, a program to design and build a temporary summer pavilion in the central parking lot in downtown Flint.

Formerly occupied by a series of office buildings and storefronts along Saginaw Street, the full–block surface parking lot known as the Flat Lot has become a staging ground for parades, flower–plantings, car shows, road races, and almost every sort of public event that draws large crowds. The Flat Lot Competition seeks proposals to design and build an innovative temporary structure that provides shelter, shade, and seating for a wide range of public events, defines space within the lot, and demonstrates the capacity of contemporary architectural form–making to transform space and captivate the public imagination – all while occupying no more than eight parking spaces during normal business hours. The winner of the competition will receive $25,000 to realize their proposal.

A collaboration between AIA–Flint, Flint Public Art Project and the Downtown Development Authority, the Flat Lot Competition is modeled after the MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program, which every year reinvents the former public school courtyard in Long Island City, Queens as a popular place for summer events and concerts.

The Flat Lot will be a new center and symbol for the city, an attraction for regional visitors, and a site that amplifies the many existing events that help define cultural life in Flint.

flintpublicartproject.com