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A refined version of the artwork chosen by the public to be installed on the façade of the Ewell Plaza parking garage in downtown Lancaster will be presented to the Lancaster Parking Authority on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. A rendering of the design titled “The New Lancaster Rainbow” sent to LNP | LancasterOnline on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, is seen above. 7075 Aluminum Alloy
This view shows Ewell Plaza in the 100 Block of North Queen Street in Lancaster city Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Ewell Plaza is now open after a ribbon cutting Friday morning.
A refined version of the artwork chosen by the public to be installed on the façade of the Ewell Plaza parking garage in downtown Lancaster will be presented to the Lancaster Parking Authority on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. A rendering of the design titled “The New Lancaster Rainbow” sent to LNP | LancasterOnline on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, is seen above.
This view shows Ewell Plaza in the 100 Block of North Queen Street in Lancaster city Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. Ewell Plaza is now open after a ribbon cutting Friday morning.
If an art object you owned doubled in value in four years, you’d be thrilled.
But what if an art dealer told you one price for a piece you wanted to buy, then turned around later to quote a price twice as high?
That’s the situation Lancaster Parking Authority is facing with the public art project at the Christian Street Garage overlooking Ewell Plaza on North Queen Street.
The authority budgeted $600,000 in 2018 to build and install the artwork — ultimately settling on colored aluminum tubing that would hang vertically on the façade and titled “The New Lancaster Rainbow” and designed by Miami-based R&R studios.
The authority solicited bids last October, and when no one submitted a proposal by the Nov. 22 deadline, it extended bidding until Dec. 6.
Benchmark Construction Co., of Brownstown, submitted the sole bid — for $1.5 million.
“I can’t say anyone is happy that we only got one bid and that was the amount,” Larry Cohen, executive director of Lancaster Parking Authority, said Monday. Cohen cited the pandemic, supply chain issues and inflation as part of the reason for the inflated price.
That price includes engineering, fabrication, transportation, installation and project management to get it done. R&R Studios was paid $15,000 for its design — $5,000 in city funds and $10,000 from an anonymous donor — and will get another $60,000 for work to complete the project.
The art cost is incorporated into the total cost of the roughly $34 million Ewell Plaza project, which includes the 325-spot parking garage, the new home for the Lancaster Public Library, and two retail storefronts. Initially, the entire project was expected to cost about $29 million.
Jamie Hall, the director of development at Lancaster Public Library who is overseeing the move to Ewell Plaza, said Tuesday the library expects to begin the relocation at the end of March and anticipates opening in early May.
Despite the significantly higher price tag, the city is going ahead with the art project.
“We have informed (Lancaster Parking Authority) that it is required to complete the entire 151 North Queen building, including the façade, per the various land development approvals, including the terms of the Certificate of Appropriateness issued by City Council,” Mayor Danene Sorace said in an email Tuesday.
Sorace said significant cost overruns are a challenge in all land development and construction projects in the current market, and all organizations are seeking ways to cover the gap between what was budgeted for the art and the bid submitted by Benchmark..
Cohen said the authority has been negotiating with Benchmark and has reduced the cost by “several hundred thousand” dollars.
Money would come from the parking authority’s capital reserve fund of about $4 million to $5 million and shuffling priorities in its budget, Cohen said Tuesday.
“It’s our piggy bank. … It’s there for capital repairs, upgrades, replacements, (any) kind of emergency situations that happen,” Cohen said.
The authority budgets about $2 million a year for capital projects, Cohen said.
“We just have to move around and prioritize what gets done this year as public art moves to the top of the list of what needs to get done,” Cohen said.
He previously estimated it could take about 10 months to fabricate and install the artwork.
The art component of the project has been controversial from the beginning.
The Lancaster arts community was upset that local artists weren’t used. The city’s Historical Commission recommended City Council reject the installation in 2019, but council approved it. Opponents tried unsuccessfully to stop the project in Lancaster County Court.
Some are disappointed the city is going ahead given the higher-than-budgeted cost.
April Koppenhaver, founder of Mulberry Art Studios, said it was “so crushingly disappointing” that the city was moving ahead.
“Isn’t that sad that they’d make it a priority from the capital budget (even though) the majority of us in the arts community opposed it. … I would like to know one person who is for this in the arts community in Lancaster. I have not met one person,” she said.
Koppenhaver spoke against the project at the parking authority’s board meeting last month and said she hopes people come to the board’s Feb. 23 meeting.
Historical Commission member Steve Funk said Monday that given the cost increase, the city should “do the right thing and engage seriously with the local arts community.”
Funk designed 101NQ, the mixed-use building just south of the new library and parking garage that’s also home to LNP Media Group Inc. When R&R’s designs were proposed in September 2019, he called it overpowering and likened it to a billboard.
“It was so roundly condemned by the local community,” Funk said Monday. “The design that won got the most comments but … most of the comments were like, ‘This is the least worst of the three’” proposed designs, he said.
Cohen said while the agenda for the board’s Feb. 23 meeting hasn’t been finalized, he expects the art project to be part on it. And for opponents to turn out.
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