Request for Qualifications -- NoMa Artscapes: Transforming Public Spaces

The NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue)  Business Improvement District (BID) in Washington, DC, is requesting qualifications of an individual artist and/or design team as part of a new initiative, NoMa Artscapes: Transforming Public Spaces, which aims to contribute to the visual character and texture of NoMa by commissioning a distinctive and precedent-setting work that enhances the vibrancy of this rapidly developing urban neighborhood and its public spaces.  Located just north of the nation’s Capitol, since the opening of the New York Avenue Metro Station in 2004, NoMa has undergone tremendous growth and change.

National and local development firms are bringing world class architecture and cutting edge sustainability to their plans for more than 20 million square feet of office, residential, retail, and hotel space to be built over the next ten to fifteen years. The project site is located at the heart of the emerging NoMa neighborhood, and includes the public space at the newly constructed Capitol Plaza Building at 1200 First Street NE (intersection of 1st Street and M Street NE).  The site is highly visible and accessible to pedestrians and motorists due to its location just one block from the New York Avenue Metro Station, a short walk from Union Station, and a few blocks from Route 50/New York Avenue. 

The submission of qualifications are due by 6PM EST March 16, 2009.  The BID is managing and funding the project with matching funds provided by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Public Art Building Communities Program ($100,000 project budget). DCCAH is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.  The Project Selection Committee will consider a wide range of media such as sculpture, mosaic, sidewalk insets, street furniture, planters, landscaping, lighting and painting treatments. Applicants can submit qualifications individually or as teams, and include artists, landscape architects, architects, lighting designers, engineers, and other design professionals.  For more information please visit the NoMa Artscapes Project website: http://www.nomabid.org/index.cfm?objectid=6C219219-1D09-317F-BB880BD8AD39BBBE

Questions? Contact Dana Chieco, Planning & Program Manager, NoMa BID, [email protected]