Suwanee Public Art Master Plan
Suwanee, a small spunky city in Gwinett County, Ga., has long been admired by its neighbors for it success in urban design, public space planning and public art. Bressi was asked to create a public art master plan that would build on its success with City commissions and voluntary projects from developers. The plan identified locations for donated artworks and proposed the idea of an art corridor that led from the existing town square to a new community park being developed nearby. That vision was adopted and for a decade has resulted in installations around the city.
Date | 2016
Client | City of Suwanee
Collaborators | Via Partnership
Suwanee, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, has been successful in building a public realm and civic pride. After several years of sponsoring a downtown sculpture exhibition and a voluntary program for developers to display public art, Suwanee commissioned Bressi to prepare public art master plan.
Suwanee’s plan charts how it can take its already-successful projects to a new level, with a fundamental commitment to enriching the city’s emerging network of public spaces. Its key recommendations were an artist-designed walkway connecting its Town Center to a major park being developed nearby, artworks that would create a pedestrian loop between its historic downtown and new town center, and a strategy for art along its greenways.
The plan identified sites where public art could be incorporated into the capital budgets of public projects, mapped out sites for a decade’s worth of public art donations to the City, and outlined a more rigorous policy for the acceptance of donated works.
The plan is rooted in the understanding that public art is essential to the city’s sense of itself – creating memorable images for the city and reinforcing Suwanee’s playful spirit.
