The final design of the Bloomington gateway landmark coming to Miller-Showers Park.
(Provided, City of Bloomington)
A gateway landmark welcoming people to Bloomington will be installed at Miller-Showers Park late this year, according to city officials.
The city announced Wednesday the finalized design will be built at the north end of the park now that the Board of Park Commissioners has approved construction contracts for the project. It did so at a public meeting Tuesday.
The resigned concept features a horizontal gateway made of stacked limestone blocks. The metal lettering will be backlit by LED lights. The city will also install a public art element, which the Bloomington Arts Commission will solicit proposals for.
The city said this concept incorporates public feedback it received after announcing a similar design last December. Officials unveiled that version after public outcry against a previous concept featuring a vertical monolith.
Bloomington Parks and Recreation Director Tim Street told the board earlier this week that reception to the new design was more positive than the monolith design.
“A lot of the feedback that we heard in the fall involved people expressing desire for a true commissioned public process piece of art,” Street said. “That is what the Bloomington Arts Commission (BAC) does.”
Street added the public art component will likely be about 60 feet from the gateway. The BAC will have a $125,000 budget to solicit, select and install the art piece.
“I do not have a timeframe on the BAC solicitation, commission and installation of this,” Street said. “The good news is, because of its location it can run largely separately from our construction process.”
Funding for the project comes from a series of bicentennial bonds the Bloomington City Council approved in 2018. A total of $1.25 million was earmarked for the project.
Although discussions of the now-abandoned monolith happened in open meetings after bonding, Street said they were not well-attended.
“It went through several different rounds and iterations of sort of public feedback and response, including several public meetings that were about the vertical gateway that just didn't have the reach I think that we'd hoped they would have,” he said.
Members of the public started pushing back on the monolith design shortly after the city, under the direction of former mayor John Hamilton, released renderings to the public in September. The city officially put the plans on hold in late October, citing public feedback and a closing window of opportunity to build due to weather. The project was also held up due to inaction from the city’s Board of Public Works, which failed to vote on a lane and sidewalk closure needed for project installation.
Project cost
The Board of Park Commissioners approved three separate contracts Tuesday: two with Reed & Sons for change orders and the limestone wall and one with bo-mar Industries for the lettering. The city had already contracted with both companies for work on the original monolith design.
For Reed & Sons, the board approved a $79,462 addendum to a $575,000 July 2023 contract to cover modifications to the original site. This brings the total contract amount to $654,462. The city said this was needed for additional work on the sidewalk and the redesigned gateway. The city also awarded Reed & Sons another contract of $249,750 to fabricate and install the limestone gateway wall.
For bo-mar, the board approved a new $65,000 contract. The city had already signed a $395,105 contract with bo-mar for the monolith design. The city said it was able to recoup $362,477 from the original contract but could not recover the $32,628 it already paid the company.
In January, the commission also approved a $42,300 addendum to a contract with Rundell Ernstberger Associates which included the development of the final design into construction documents. The city had already approved two contracts with the firm in the amounts of $45,800 and $133,925.
The city said that besides the additional $125,000 for the BAC, which comes from another portion of the bicentennial bonds, the city expects this project to stay within its original $1.25 million budget. After redesigns, the project cost is about $1.23 million.
It added that enough funds remain in the portion of the bonds going toward the BAC’s budget that it won’t negatively impact other projects.
