University of Minnesota

College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

 

Public Art and Site Development Timeline

 

By: Shelly Willis, UMN Public Art Coordinator

 

 

August,  2000:                                    College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA) public art committee meets for the first time.

 

September 12,2000:                            46 artists are recommended by the Committee and the Public Art on Campus Coordinator and reviewed by committee.  Six semi-finalists are selected



December 7, 2000:                             Three finalists are selected to be interviewed: James Carpenter, Meg Webster, John Roloff.  James Carpenter declines to be considered for project.

 

March 9, 2001:                                   Meg Webster and John Roloff are interviewed. 

John Roloff is Selected for project

 

April 25-26, 2001:                              John Roloff visits the campus for the first time and meets with CALA faculty and staff.

 

June, 7, 2001:                                      John Roloff visits Steven Holl in New York City.

 

October  5, 2001                                 Rapson Holl opens.  John Roloff gives public talk at the opening and exhibits design proposals.

 

October 23, 2001:                               John RoloffÕs first design review.  Roloff presents 7 different designs for the project, many of which are integral to the landscape.  Committee decides not to proceed ahead with the public art component until a landscape architect is secured.

 

June 5-6, 2002:                                   John Koepke, Rebecca Krinke, and Vairajita Singh produce a 2-day workshop at CALA to generate concepts for the landscape design and give John Roloff an opportunity to share his ideas and conceptual approach to the project with faculty, students and staff at CALA.  Dean Abbott also presents schematic designs for the gardens.

 

June 10, 2002:                                     CALA Public Art Committee meets and is updated on the workshop and discusses how to proceed with the project.  It is recommended by the committee that Rebecca Krinke and John Roloff work together..

 

June 14, 2002:                                     The Landscape Architecture Department faculty  recommends hiring Rebecca Krinke to collaborate with John Roloff to develop the gardens at CALA.

 

February 2003:                                   CALA approves Rebecca Krinke to collaborate with Roloff.

 

March 20-21 2003:                             Krinke and Roloff  meet for two days and begin generating the garden designs.

 

June 2, 2003:                                       Krinke and Roloff present proposal to the CALA Public Art Committee.  The  Committee approves the proposal and makes recommendation to include Church street in design.

 

December, 2003:                                 Project proposal presented to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents.

 

April 28, 2004                                    Ground breaking and West garden construction begins.

 

Summer, 2005:                                    East, north, and south garden construction planned.

 

 

 

College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

PUBLIC ART PROJECT COMMITTEE:

 

 

University of Minnesota

PUBLIC ART ON CAMPUS COMMITTEE

 

 

REBECCA KRINKE

Rebecca Krinke is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches studios, technology courses, and seminars on contemporary landscape architecture.  Prior to joining the Minnesota faculty, she taught studios at Harvard Design School, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Boston Architectural Center.  Degrees in art (sculpture) and landscape architecture have provided the framework for her research and practice which has a focus on contemplative and commemorative space.  A contemplative space she designed for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Forest Transformation, has just been built.  It is composed of a bench/room and a copper clad wall that catches light and shadows, inviting visitors to pause and see the forest in a new way.  The Great Island Memorial Garden, in collaboration with architect Randall Imai, was constructed in Massachusetts in 1999.  Krinke organized and participated in a ground breaking symposium: ÒContemporary Landscapes of ContemplationÓ which was held at the University in October 2002.  She has given invited lectures on her work at Harvard Design School, MIT, Rhode Island School of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design, the University of Florida, and Virginia Tech, among others.  Her publications include essays on The Lightning Field, the Oklahoma Memorial, and articles on the design of the contemporary, post-industrial landscape.  She has twice won Landscape Architecture magazine's "Visionary Landscapes" competition and has served as a juror for this event.

 

JOHN ROLOFF

John Roloff's work generally falls into two site-related categories: large-scale environmental projects and large-scale photographic images installed in an architectural context.  Roloff consistently works with themes related to ecology, geology, climactic phenomena, processes and history of the site's region or specific locality.  He is probably best known for his site-collaborative ceramic installations in which large, hollow, refractory cement sculptures are fired at night outdoors using propane gas.  This results in artifacts analogous to those made by naturally occurring event.  Roloff grew up on the Oregon coast and attended the University of California at Davis, with the idea of becoming a marine geologist, but ultimately turning his attention towards making art.  His work has been included in exhibitions at the Whitney (1975) and the Smithsonian (1989).  He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1983, a Fellowship award from the California Arts Council (1990), and three Fellowship awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (1977), (1980), (1986).  His work has been reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle, Artforum, New York Times and Art in America, among others.  Since 1974, Roloff has done more than 85 lectures, panels, and visiting artists positions.  He has taught at numerous Collages and Universities from 1978-1988, and is currently a full-time professor at the San Francisco Art Institute.

 

 

About the University of Minnesota Public Art on Campus Program

The University of Minnesota established its Public Art on Campus Program in 1988, five years after Minnesota lawmakers declared that one percent of constructions costs for any state-funded building go toward the acquisition of artwork.  The Public Art on Campus Program is managed by a committee of artists and professionals, architects, planners, landscape architects and engineers, chaired by the Weisman Art Museum's director, Lyndel King.  They collaborate in each selection process with a committee composed of people who use the building where the artwork will be located.  The public art budget was used for the design, fabrication and installation of the CALA public art and garden project.