Midwest Real Estate News
June, 2003

The Case for Public Art in Real Estate
By James Evans

From Pablo Picasso to Eero Saarinen, artists have created public art works that contribute to urban design, assist in development and help bring a sense of vitality to communities across the Midwest.

For a few evening hours during the first weekend in May, a crew of workers shut down a small section of Michigan Avenue in Chicago to bring in a crane and install a 44-feet tall steel sculpture and a companion artwork on the plaza in front of 401 North Michigan Avenue.

Sculptures of this type had not sat on the well-known plaza for more than 30 years, but building owner Zeller Realty Corp. made a conscious decision to bring art back to the doorstep of the company’s 35-story, 737,308 square foot office tower. It was part of the kick-off of Art Chicago 2003 at Navy Pier.

“We think it offers…a dynamic and exciting view of art,” says Reuben Warshawsky, chief operating officer at Zeller Realty, which owned the “Equitable Building” since November 2001. “It gives people the opportunity to see art they may not get to see normally. It offers exposure.”

Warshawsky says the public can debate whether they like the modern art by noted-sculptor John Henry, but he says it will “bring an energy to our plaza.” And if the response is positive to the art, which will be on display until October, Warshawsky says Zeller Realty may put other pieces of public art on display in the future.

Indeed, Warshawsky says it cost about $30,000 to install Henry’s $500,000 a piece sculptures on the plaza for the second time in his career; he first displayed his sculptures at Pioneer Court in 1968.

For property owners, the challenge with public art may be finding studies or quantifiable evidence of its benefits. Without a doubt, though, there is lengthy list of corporations, real estate companies and other advocates who can provide positive, testimonials of the benefits of displaying public art on their properties.

“Public art creates really meaningful places,” say Mary Altman, public arts administrator for Minneapolis. “It is also part of good urban design. It stimulates urban design. It stimulates conversation about the community. It attracts visitors to downtown. It contributes to the livability. It is a good way a company or organization can make a contribution to the community.”

In recent years, several prominent public art pieces at private buildings have been added to the Minneapolis landscape. One of the more recent pieces is Maya Lin’s “the character of a hill, under glass”—an artwork unveiled in 2002 that includes a garden inside a three-story glass box and a waterfall. It is both inside and outside the American Express Client Services Center at 10th Street South and 3rd Avenue South. Lin may be best known for creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Other artworks are located on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall including a fountain commissioned by Target Corp. by Howard Ben Tre as well as large stone pieces by Brad Goldberg commissioned by Ryan Companies US Inc. The projects were all part of the Minneapolis Beautiful project—a privately funded, $4 million public art streetscape completed in 2000.

Farther down the Mississippi River in St. Louis, public art has long had a place. Arguably, the city’s most prominent piece of public art is the Gateway Arch. Architect Eero Saarinen won a design competition in 1947 for the 630 foot high stainless-steel structure, which signifies the U.S. western expansion and was dedicated in 1966. The national monument has been a tourist magnet for years and contributed to attracting other development along the river, such as the historic LaClede’s Landing district.

Since 1996, LaClede’s Landing Redevelopment Corp. has made public art a part of its mixed-use riverfront development, says Tom Purcell, president of the corporation, which is owned by private investors and St. Louis companies.

“It is part of the menu of making an atmosphere,” Purcell said.

The corporation has purchased eight artworks, totaling approximately $250,000 in investment, for the former warehouse district that now has restaurants, retail and entertainment. A committee of merchants and other interested parties assist in the art selection process, Purcell says.

“The key thing with old parts of a city is environments,” he says, “Public art enhances the environment.”

Certainly, the First National Bank of Omaha subscribes to that train of thought. In the quarter-block plaza area for the new 40-story First National Bank Tower, a sculpture titled “Spirit of Nebraska Wilderness” sits with a 110 feet by 80 feet granite pond.

The sculpture by Kent Ullberg has bronze geese flying out of the pond and also geese in other metals, such as stainless steel, positioned on streetlights and attached to an adjacent former bank building. Later this year, a bronze buffalo will be incorporated into the natural scene and three others will be added in 2004.

Brenda Dooley, president of First National Buildings, a branch of First National of Omaha, said the plaza with the public art is part of the fifth-generation local bank’s commitment to downtown Omaha.

Gaining a sense of place or creating a greater connection to a building or property from a piece of public art does not have to cost millions, say Jill MacGuire, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Art Commission.

“I think one of the least known facts about public art is that in communities large and small they have artists living in their communities,” MacGuire says. “I don’t think people realize that from $5,000 to $500,000, you can work with an artist and come up with something unique, something really wonderful that will mark [a space].”

In St. Paul, Minnesota, efforts are underway to gauge the benefits of public art in the Western Sculpture Park, which is near the Minnesota State Capitol area on Marion Street. Prior to the installation of the sculptures in 1998, there were substantial police calls to the park for drug dealing, prostitution and physical violence, says Christine Podas-Larson, president of Public Art St. Paul.

Today, approximately 20 sculptures are in the park thanks to at least 15 public and private foundations and individual donors. The investment in the park has aided in turning the area around, Podas-Larson says. Public Arts St. Paul this summer will release a study looking in part at crime rates and real estate investment in the neighborhood to show what impact public art has had on the area.

“What we are trying to do in this assessment is quantify this so it is not just people’s perceptions,” Podas-Larson says. Public art “has been a mobilizing agent for social change” in St. Paul, she says.

Go back to News