Evanston’s Arts Council this week recommended that the city award a contract for public art at the new Robert Crown Center to New York architect Marc Fornes.
His proposal was one of five finalists from an original pool of 261 applications for the project.
Fornes’ proposal envisions a 20-foot-tall aluminum sculpture that would be placed just to the east of the new building and would serve as a performance space as well as a visual focal point.
A drawing showing the proposed sculpture in relation to adjacent portions of the community center site.
Fornes, on his TheVeryMany website, displays images of a range of similar projects he’s designed at sites ranging from Texas to Kazakhstan.
Price may be an issue for the project. Only $325,000 remains of an initial allocation of $400,000 for art at the Crown Center, and the Arts Council asked the Center’s arthitect, Andy Tinucci, to work with Fornes to try to reduce the cost of the design from the $400,000 estimate Fornes provided in his proposal.
An aerial view of the sculpture and the seating area surrounding it.
Assuming the cost issue can be successfully addressed, the contract for the art work will still require approval from the City Council.
More views of Fornes’ design and of those of the four other finalists are are available online.