Elliott Bay Seawall Habitat and Tidelines Artwork

The Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, in collaboration with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), seeks a professional artist or artist team residing in the United States to join the design team and develop one or more detailed proposals for site-responsive artwork for the Elliott Bay Seawall Project. The intent is to develop integrated and/or discrete artworks that contribute to the overall project goals of habitat restoration and the development of public open space along the seawall. This project is one of the earliest components of the redevelopment of Seattle's Central Waterfront. The initial concept design budget is $30,000 inclusive of all proposal-related costs. Students are not eligible to apply.

The Elliott Bay Seawall will replace the existing seawall in downtown Seattle from South Washington Street to Broad Street with a structure that meets current ecological, safety and design standards. The project will protect Seattle's downtown waterfront from wind-driven storm waves and erosive tidal forces, support major public and private utilities, and improve the degraded ecosystem functions and marine habitat of Elliott Bay near-shore. The city plans to replace the most deteriorated sections of the central seawall beginning in late 2013. The new seawall's service life will be approximately 100 years.

The selected artist will design one or more permanent outdoor artworks that reveal, respond to, and activate tidal and ecological conditions of the seawall, Elliott Bay and Puget Sound. Working closely with Seawall Project engineers, biologists, ecologists and designers, the artist will develop artwork that relates to the complex ecology of the site, interpreting and expanding the ways in which the seawall performs as both infrastructure and habitat. The primary site for artwork is currently imagined to be within a new "pocket beach" near the Washington Street Boat Landing. Additional sites may include attachments to the seawall face, public piers, habitat benches, public access points between piers, and upland areas along the pedestrian promenade. The application deadline is 11 p.m., Friday, October 26, 2012 (Pacific Daylight Time). Applicants must submit 16 images.