Saturday, April 07, 2007

Call To Artists - Urban Design Mural

A comment from an earlier posting:

Hello Seminole Heights! I must say I wish I was made aware of this site sooner. A friend of mine had mentioned that there was some buzz of our business venture here and I should take the time to read it. I would like to thank those who made some great suggestions about the windows. I AGREE! We want to open it up. There is just this one problem. You see, we do not own the building. Even if we did own the building, permits are required, which means contractors are required, which means a great deal of preparation is required prior to modifying the building. These modifications are part of our future plans along with cleaning up the lot between 4007 and 4011. Unfortunately, it is more important to cater to our current clients and seek out new clients prior to undertaking additional expenses. Predicated that our landlord accepts our proposed modifications, we hope to start the process of qualifying contractors in late September. Currently we are researching the municipal requirements and discussing concepts.

Since we're speaking of exterior modifications, I would like to share our current plan for our North Elevation [Ida St.] and the South Elevation. [In-between bldgs] Both of these walls are being made available to local artists who are up to the challenge of a large canvas. Yes, we're even paying for the paint. Here's the catch. The "Ida" wall must communicate a positive portrayal of life and be politically neutral. The south wall is a substantially smaller canvas since we are only planning on utilizing the front portion of the building. However this wall is open to any type of art. Again, no proposals should imply political alignment. Everyone wishing to submit their artwork and concepts are welcome to mail them or drop them off.

We feel this will be a great opportunity for a few lucky artists to get a huge canvas to display their art. You can also stop in and get a scale elevation drawing of our building to sketch your concept on. We have not set a final deadline for entries as of yet but we all agree that it should be sometime in June.

Again, my sincere thanks to the wonderful people who have supported us so far! I will try my best to keep regular updates posted here. In the mean time, I wish everyone the best but I must return to my work.

Thanks again!

Joseph M. Licari
Urban Design, LLC

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think doing murals on a building is an urabn idea who's time has come and gone. It will make the area continue to look like a ghetto. Why not just make it look nice with proper painting, lighting, signage and lanscaping?
What does your company do, by the way?

Anonymous said...

i don't agree at all. sounds awesome!

Anonymous said...

Art's like sex.
Lousy is better than none at all.

Anonymous said...

Hummm urban murals are passee? Guess someone should tell Tampa, Atlanta, and a ton of other large cities and small towns across America!

Some cities even have mural tours!

I think annon 12:56 that you must be an accountant or some other profession that sees art as disposable and unimportant in daly life.

Anonymous said...

The building is looking great. I think it is funny how Ybor City chased off their art commumnity, the Mayor is trying to throw millions into downtown to creat an "arts district" yet Seminole Heights has a HUGE and THRIVING artist community. I can name at least 30 well known artist, advertising agencies, design firms, etc that call Seminole Heights home. I wish the city would finally wake up and give this neighborhood the respect and attention it deserves.

Anonymous said...

I think the problem may be the Murals are considered "Inner City" or "Ghettoesque"

Personally, I would prefer the buildings be restored to their natural beauty show. If you look at the style of the building, there are some nice features.

Anonymous said...

Murals! Murals! I wholeheartedly support murals!

If they are perceived as "ghetto-esque" by people who don't know better, then that's a shame. But don't let it stop you from having them, Urban Design!

I was just in Chicago, and was eating downtown in Macy's (formerly Marshall Fields - sigh) and had a great view of an awesome mural on a building that is right off of Michigan Ave., prominently and purposely displayed.

And what do you think that big lizard hanging in our downtown is supposed to emulate? Or the ugly Lightning hanging?

I think that murals are correctly associated with urban areas, not ghettos or inner city. The area where this business is located IS urban (hence the name). Urban does not = bad.

Anonymous said...

Think how great those huge expanses of privacy fence enclosing the "compounds" would look if they were done up in murals.