Convention center notebook: Extra costs include foundation change for sanitary sewer; art project draws 180 applications
Bloomington’s convention center expansion has used about 13% of its $2.4M contingency as steel goes up on the $52M project. The CIB also heard an update on the $520K public-art effort, which drew 180 applicants and is expected to be narrowed to five finalists by mid-December.
Of the $2.4 million that has been set aside to cover unplanned changes to the Bloomington Convention Center expansion project, about 13% of it has been used so far for the construction of the 60,0000-square-foot space.
The project got a formal ground breaking almost six months ago. The total construction budget for the project, which is being paid for out of the city’s share of the 1% countywide food and beverage tax, is $52 million.
Structural steel is now going up on the project, south of 3rd Street, between College Avenue and Walnut Street. The installation of 21 long-span trusses (over 100 feet), weighing 13 tons apiece, is expected to start in December.
That was the basic update from last week’s meeting of Monroe County’s capital improvement board (CIB), which is overseeing the project through an interlocal agreement between the city and county governments.
The board also got an update on the public art project for the convention center expansion, which is being funded through the city’s one-percent for art program, and has $520,000 allocated to it. Responding to the call for qualifications were 180 artists who are hoping to take on the project.
Contingency expenditures
The update to the board on expenditures due to change orders, from the allocated amount of about $2.4 million for contingencies, came from Deb Kunce, with JS Held, which the CIB’s owner’s representative for the project. About 13% of the project’s original $2.4 million contingency fund has been expended.
Change orders under $25,000 can be approved by CIB board president John Whikehart. Recently approved change orders under $25,000 included: fire protection revisions ($2,095), bridge foundations and structure revisions ($13,964), and a deduction from a toilet compartment specification change (–$2,023).
A change order with a bigger amount of $126,815—to accommodate a deeper foundation for a 24-inch sanitary sewer line—drew some discussion from the board. The request for a deeper foundation had come from City of Bloomington Utilities (CBU), Kunce said, in connection with its request for a bigger sewer line. Who should pay for the bigger sewer line has been a point of negotiation between the CIB and CBU. The bigger line is needed because the current 18-inch pipe is under capacity for the amount of flow that will be coming from the west side of the city, according to CBU.
Kunce said at Wednesday’s meeting that a deeper foundation would make access to the sewer line easier for maintenance. Responding to a CIB member question, Sarah Hempstead, project architect Schmidt Associates, said the deeper foundation makes maintenance easier “because then you can dig up the line using only a backhoe.” She added, “The deeper foundation essentially acts as an underground retaining wall, and so it requires no additional shoring of the foundation in order to dig up and access the line.”
Change orders to date
Art project artist selection
A call was put out for the convention center public art for artists to submit their qualifications to do the project.
At the CIB’s October meeting, Holly Warren, who is assistant director for the arts in the city of Bloomington’s economic and sustainability department, had updated the board on some tweaks to the way the $520,000 would be spent. Part of the change was increased honoraria for artists selected as finalists, which will be $5,000 per artist, to generate an actual proposal.
At last Wednesday’s meeting, Warren told the CIB that she’d received 180 applications, including 14 international artists and eight from Bloomington. “We’re still pretty hopeful that we’re going to be able to get that narrowed down to our five finalists before the end of the year,” Warren said.
Warren said she would make a “first pass” through the applications to reduce it to a pool of around 75 people. Warren said, “All of the applicants are strong. We’re just seeing many applicants in this pool—while they’re doing really good work as muralists or people who do kind of on- off sculptures—they’re not necessarily ready to integrate their work into the type of architecture that the expansion is going to have.” The first step is to focus on applicants who “know how to put their work in a built environment.”
After Warren has narrowed the pool, a review committee will further narrow the pool down to five. She hopes to have the five finalists settled by Dec. 16, which is the day before the CIB convenes its final regular meeting of the year.
Of the $520,000 budget for the convention center expansion public art project, honoraria and travel are allocated $32,000 total. Artists who make the final cut will also have their travel to Bloomington covered. The project itself is allocated $400,000, which will cover the selected artist’s fee, fabrication, installation, insurance, shipping, and contingency. An additional $87,500 is being allocated for adding to the existing collection of art for the convention center by local artists.
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