Grace Arts Center Entryway and Backlot Ideas and Design Competition

Introduction

Grace Arts Center of Dania Beach, Florida, is a non-profit organization providing education and venues for the performing and visual arts, besides being co-located with an art gallery and the dogoodhere café.

The Competition

The organizers are looking for ideas and creative designs for the façade treatment of the rear façade of the warehouse building, a canopy for the entryway, including the door (which swings outward, (as per the building code), into the Grace Arts Center, off of the alleyway access, and a general plan for the parking area. Competition entrants may choose at their discretion to submit proposals either for the entryway/canopy and façade treatment of the building alone, or include ideas and designs for the general plan of the parking area.

Important Issues

This competition seeks to raise issues of critical importance to the current and future practices of environmental design, art, and planning. Such issues include Sustainability, Building Façade Revitalization, Movement and Sensory Challenged Accessibility, First Cost and Cost of Ownership, Sociable Urban Design and Planning, Pedestrian, Public Transit, and Bicycle Modes of Mobility, Integration with the Automobile, Light Pollution, Vehicular Access, Art and its Role in the City, and Public Art.

The Competition in detail

There are two sections to this competition. Participants can choose to propose a west facing façade treatment for the building alone or propose in addition ideas and designs for the backlot parking area. Any proposal for the backlot parking area must also include proposals for the Grace Arts Center building façade. The west facing façade treatment of the warehouse building should include a 2 dimensional surface proposal for the entire façade, as well as a canopy to protect guests at the entry door, both of which should reflect the diverse, creative, and exciting activities of the Grace Arts Center. The 2 dimensional façade proposal should ideally be on the surface only, removable, and be capable of returning the façade to its original condition. The canopy for the entry door must accommodate access for emergency response and delivery vehicles, be demountable, and removable from the façade, should withstand high winds but does not need to meet Dade County impact standards. The Backlot parking area should assist in the flexible use of the parking area, including accommodating vehicular traffic, parking, and transitory events, such as café tables and chairs. (For further details, see below.)

In general, the ideas and competition entries should use recycled and recyclable materials, be of low carbon content, low environmental impact, low energy consumption, and show how post-consumer waste can be used to make beautiful cities. The work of Samuel Mockbee is an example of this.

www.gracecafeandgalleries.com