Semi-Finalists Announced for the NoMa Underpass Design Competition
June 5, 2014
Washington, D.C., June 5, 2014 – The NoMa Parks Foundation announced this morning the semi-finalists who have been invited to continue on to the next phase of the NoMa Underpass Design Competition.
The competition’s jury is comprised of Elizabeth Broun, the Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; architect and columnist Roger Lewis; local artist Robin Rose; George Hemphill, local art curator/gallery owner and founding member of the District of Columbia Arts Center; and Charles “Sandy” Wilkes, Chair of the NoMa Parks Foundation, which is the sponsor of the competition.
“We are delighted to have on our jury such remarkable, highly esteemed individuals who are deeply committed to promoting great art and design in Washington,” said Curtis Clay, Director of Park and Public Realm Development and the design competition project manager.
The underpass competition seeks artists to install interactive installations in four underpasses at L, M, and K Streets, NE, and Florida Avenue, NE. The competition has generated overwhelming interest and excitement since its announcement in April. During the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) phase, the Foundation received 248 submissions from 14 countries, including a strong number of local entries. After a rigorous review, 49 semi-finalists were selected and will now receive the Request for Proposals; they will have four weeks to prepare their responses.
The selected semi-finalists (a) presented a strong capacity to design and execute public art installations, (b) displayed the skill to produce site-specific work conducive to underpasses, (c) have completed work within an established budget and (d) provided clear explanations of their previous work.
“We had high hopes for an excellent response from the international art community but, even so, we were amazed by the extraordinary creativity and strength of the work submitted by various individuals and teams,” said Robin-Eve Jasper, President of the NoMa Business Improvement District, the Foundation’s parent organization. A full list of semi-finalists is provided below:
| Team Name | Location |
| ASC Design Group + Michael Enn Sirvet | Washington, DC |
| Asif Khan Ltd. | London, UK |
| Ball-Nogues Studio | Los Angeles, CA |
| Barbara Grygutis and Copley Wolff Design Group | Tucson, AZ |
| Bill FitzGibbons | San Antonio, TX |
| Citelum US | Washington, DC |
| CLINCH – Nora León, Ben Audrain, Eva Lynch, Boyd Chapman, Jennifer Chen | Washington, DC |
| COCOLAB | Hidalgo, Mexico |
| Corson Studios LLC | Seattle, WA |
| Craig Kraft | Washington, DC |
| Create In Situ- Sarah Zimmer & Kim Brickley | Philadelphia, PA |
| Derek Michael Besant | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Dominic Panziera & Daniela Garofalo, ARTECLETTICA | Truckee, CA |
| Erin Curtis | Washington, DC |
| Future Cities Lab + Jim Campbell + Kreysler Associates | San Francisco, CA |
| Gunda Föerster | Berlin, Germany |
| Integrated Visions + John Ensor Parker | Brooklyn, NY |
| JBAK with Words Beats & Life | Berlin, Germany and Washington, DC |
| Joshua Sarantitis and MIT Media Lab’s Social Computing Group led by Professor Sep Kamvar | Brooklyn, NY and Cambridge, MA |
| Koryn Rolstad Studios | Seattle, WA |
| Krivanek+Breaux/ Art+Design, LLC | Chicago, Il |
| Lancaster Architects + Matthew Schreiber | Brooklyn, NY |
| landscape architects Schønherr A/S and artist Ruth Campau | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| LDVC, Cinimod Studio + TALL | London, UK |
| Leni Schwendinger and Arup team members sound artist Terance Caulkins; lighting designer Christoph Gisel; and civil engineers Tom Kennedy and Hemal Patel | New York, NY |
| LIKEarchitects | Porto, Portugal |
| Marshall Moya Design LLC | Washington, DC |
| Maxx Moses with Words Beats & Life | Washington, DC |
| Mckay Scheer Studio | Washington, DC |
| Mikyoung Kim Design LLC | Boston, MA |
| Narduli Studio + Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design | Los Angeles, CA |
| NIO Architects and Thurlow Small Architects | Rotterdam, Netherlands and Pawtucket, Rhode Island |
| Omni-Zygo + Omnivore + Popular Architecture | New York, NY |
| Perfect Lighting Solutions | Washington, DC |
| Pernilla Ohrstedt Studios | London, UK |
| PhenomenArts, Inc.-Christopher Janney Artistic Director | Lexington, MA |
| Pixeluman Lab | Alexandria, VA |
| Random International | London, UK |
| Ray King (lead artist) and Duilio Passariello | Philadelphia, PA |
| Re:site (Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton) + Local Projects(Jake Barton) | Houston, TX and New York, NY |
| Reform, LLC and Artist, Robert Kent Wilson | Washington, DC |
| Surface Design Inc. + Nighthouse Studio | San Francisco, CA and Boston, MA |
| Susan Kaprov | New York, NY |
| Synthesis Design + Architecture Inc. (Lead Designer and Architect) + Moritz Waldemeyer (Interactive Design Experience) |
Los Angeles, CA |
| The Yonder Creative Studio + Fresh Concept + Perceptual Engineering | Auckland, NZ |
| Tillett Lighting Design + Benjamin Gilmartin + Eric D. Groft | Brooklyn, NY |
| United Visual Artists(UVA) | London, UK |
| Urban Matter Inc. | Brooklyn, NY |
| Widgery Studio | Cambridge, MA |
This summer, the jury will select the competition finalists. The finalists will receive an honoraria to further develop their proposals, which will be presented to the community, followed by final jury selections. Installation of the winning designs will begin in 2015.
About The NoMa Parks Foundation
The NoMa Parks Foundation was formed in 2012 and the following year received a $50 million commitment from the District government to acquire land, build parks and enhance public space in NoMa.
In the rapidly redeveloping NoMa neighborhood, one critical ingredient is missing: parks. More than 18,000 people live in greater NoMa, and the population is projected to double in the next 10 years; but currently NoMa contains no publicly accessible parks, playgrounds, or plazas. While the District of Columbia averages 12.9 acres of open space per 1,000 residents, none of these spaces exist in the NoMa neighborhood. They are urgently needed to serve the residents and more than 40,000 daytime employees and visitors to the neighborhood. Undeveloped land is becoming more scarce each year as development occurs on empty lots. The creation of refreshing, inviting parks and public spaces before it is too late will improve the lives of people in NoMa today and for generations to come. More about the NoMa Parks Foundation can be found at www.nomabid.org/parks.
About NoMa
NoMa is a vibrant, growing neighborhood nestled among Union Station, the U.S. Capitol, Shaw, and the H Street, NE corridor in Washington, D.C. Over the last several years, private developers have invested more than $5 billion in the 35-block area within the NoMa BID boundary, and have plans to develop more than 16 million square feet of additional office, residential, hotel, and retail space. NoMa is home to more than 3,900 new apartments, and more than 40,000 people work in NoMa each day. With unparalleled transportation access via Amtrak, VRE, MARC, two Red Line Metro stops, and vehicular access to Interstate 395, visitors, workers and residents can easily travel throughout the region as well as to New York or anywhere on the East Coast. For more information about NoMa, visit www.nomabid.org and sign up for our bimonthly newsletter.
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For immediate release
News media contact:
Rachel Davis
202-997-3846
rdavis@nomabid.org
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