Cedar Rapids council promises to spend 1 percent of project costs on public art and other visual enhancements

CEDAR RAPIDS – Art has found a friend at City Hall.

The City Council this week said it will steer 1 percent of a building project's cost into public art and other visual enhancements, a move that beefs up a current 16-year-old city policy that has been little used and allows but doesn't require such spending up to 1 percent of a project's cost.

Council member Monica Vernon noted that the city is in the midst of a major rebuilding program that will bring a new library, a new Central Fire Station, a new transit facility and a new $67-million Event Center complex to the downtown as well as see major renovations at the Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island, home to City Hall, and the former federal courthouse, which will house city offices.

Vernon said this investment in public facilities must come with the "inspiration" that art brings to a place. The city would do a "disservice" to the community without such a commitment, she said.

Both she and council member Don Karr said they wouldn't mind seeing a commitment of 2 percent of a project's cost for art and other visual enhancements, the level which is being spent by the federal government at the new federal courthouse, Dan Thies, president/CEO of OPN Architects Inc., noted to the council.

Council members Kris Gulick and Tom Podzimek successfully argued for a flexible policy that will allow for "pooling" of funds so money for art on one building project less in need of art can be steered to more high-profile buildings. Podzimek noted that some $100 million in public funds will be going into the Water Pollution Control facility, the Public Works facility and the Fleet Management operation, but he didn't think, in total, those facilities would need $1 million spent on art and other visual amenities.

Jim Kern, executive director of Brucemore and chairman of the city's Visual Arts Commission, called on the council to change the city art policy from "may" include "up to" 1 percent" to "shall" include 1 percent. The council agreed with him.

The council will vote on the matter in the weeks ahead, but the council seemed to agree with Vernon that the 1 percent should be based on total project cost and not just the portion of the project covered by local funds. The $67-million Event Center project, for instance, uses $17 million in local funds, but under the proposed policy change the 1 percent would be of the $67-million figure, not the smaller amount.

Brad Larson, a Community Development Department planner, told the council that the current city policy on visual enhancements was adopted in 1994, though he said it was not clear, at least in the last decade, if it was used.

Larson noted that such an art policy costs money, and he said the city likely would have spent an additional $350,000 over the last decade on building projects had the policy been used.

In the current fiscal year, seven projects would be eligible – the project must be at least $250,000 in cost to qualify - for such funding, adding $86,000 to the cost, he said.

Linn County has adopted a similar 1 percent policy on public art, but the Linn County supervisors can adjust the percentage for specific projects.