Happy Tuesday! Below, you’ll find a handful of notable news items to keep you up to speed as a new week begins and summer kicks into full gear.

CODAawards announces launch of public voting period 

Public voting has opened for the People’s Choice CODAawards. Following the submission of 460 commissioned public art projects from 20 countries, the jury for the 2022 edition of the flagship awards program of Wisconsin-based arts organization CODAworx has narrowed down submitted designs to a top 100—and now the public is invited to decide which installation it likes best. Firms and artists from around the world submitted designs for realized projects that place art in interior, architectural, or public spaces.

The longlisted designs (including 50 from North America) vary in size and scale, from murals and sculptures to full-scale models and pavilions. Among the projects up for public vote are Absence to Presence, a design by Shane Albritton, Norman Lee, RE:site, and Quenton Baker that replicates an old slave quarters uncovered during an archeological excavation on the grounds of St. Mary’s College on Maryland’s Western Shore. Another commission by Adam Kuby for the City of Boulder Office of Arts & Culture places three slanted Cor-ten steel rectangles into a park; together the sculptures form the angle of the city’s Flatirons mountain range.

Public Voting for the 10th annual CODAawards takes place online until June 30 with the winners announced on August 30.

AUX Architecture breaks ground on the Glorya Kaufman Creative Community Center in Culver City

A combined cultural and educational facility housing several Culver City, California-based nonprofits broke ground last week. The building will comprise 7,000 square feet of space for social services, tutoring, and cultural programming, including a live performance venue, art space, and affordable housing for Los Angeles-area artists.

The project is led by The Wende Museum, an art museum with a collection focused on the Cold War, also recognized for its community engagement work. In addition to the Wende Museum, other organizations to be housed inside the facility, named the Glorya Kaufman Creative Community Center after the noted L.A. arts philanthropist, include the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum, United States Veterans’ Artist Alliance, Upward Bound House, and the Artistic Freedom Initiative.

Visuals released by project architect AUX Architecture show the building’s facade lined with wood slats and wrap around terraces and a series of one-story rectangular volumes situated on the landscaped property. Construction will kick off next month. The Center is slated open to the public in 2023 with all of its programming and services being offered free of charge. Joining AUX Architecture on the project design team is Shawmut Design and Construction.

HGA completes the Lamond Riggs / Lillian J. Huff Library in Washington, D.C.

Design firm HGA has worked closely with the local community to design a new public library branch in Northeast Washington D.C., on South Dakota Avenue. The new facility, named the Lamond Riggs / Lillian J. Huff Library, spans two stories and comprises 23,000 square feet, replacing the existing building with one that is 5,000 square feet larger. To realize the project, HGA met with local groups to design a program that would incorporate the community’s goals, these include a “a place that is welcoming, a place of learning and technology, and a place of community and history.”

“Libraries can be an extension of the home for a neighborhood, so we worked closely with library staff and the community to reimagine the building program, develop a site plan, and create a building design that captured the unique qualities of the neighborhood,” said Peter Cook, design principal at HGA, in a press announcement. “The result is a beautiful, light-filled library that responds to the needs of both longtime and new residents and offers a wide range of spaces including an entry plaza that accommodates all users.”

The exterior of the building is clad with a perforated aluminum screen; the textures and patterns on the facade take cues from the neighborhood’s streetscape. Inside, bookshelves are intermingled among community-oriented social spaces such as seating lounges, large and small meeting rooms, study spaces, and a screened porch.

HGA worked with Consigli Construction Co., Inc. on the design-build project. Lee and Associates provided the landscape services around the site, which focus on sustainable practices, including a tree canopy for shading and planting buffer to shield the parking lot. The Lamond Riggs / Lillian J. Huff Library was designed to meet LEED Gold standards.

Brooklyn Museum unveils refreshed sculpture garden

A newly revamped outdoor public venue has opened at the Brooklyn Museum. Designed during the pandemic by Elizabeth Roberts Architects, the Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden—formerly the Frieda Schiff Warburg Memorial Sculpture Garden, a space first created in 1966—is a “lush refuge” located at the museum’s rear, facing the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Its flexible design accommodates all types of programming, including dining, pop-up events, music, and classes.

Wood benches, constructed by Signature Design & Construction and Tri-Lox, form the edge of the redesigned garden, while at the center movable outdoor furnishings, provided by HAY, supplement the bench seating. “The updated Sculpture Garden is a welcoming forum for resting, learning, and experiencing the Museum from a different vantage point,” the museum said in a press statement.

Boston architecture firm to go to trial in wrongful death case involving school murder

A superior court judge in Massachusetts ruled Monday there is enough evidence to implicate Boston-based architecture firm DiNisco Design Partners in trial, following the wrongful death lawsuit of Danvers High School teacher Colleen Ritzer. Ritzer was killed by a student in 2013 and her family has brought a case against DiNisco, who renovated the school with a “state-of-the-art security system” that may have prevented the teacher’s murder if it had been operating properly the family claimed.

The firm, which specializes in school design, was informed by subcontractors when the security system was installed that it had flaws and would not operate with the school’s existing hardware. Reports show the firm never relayed this information to the school, despite correspondence from administrators citing various issues over a two-year period. DiNisco claims the security system, including cameras, were in operation on the day Ritzer was killed and that it cannot be held responsible for the tragic death of Ritzer. “Any decisions on the deployment of school staff for real-time monitoring of the system were exclusively the responsibility of Danvers High School administrators and other personnel,” a spokesperson for the firm said.

H/t to The Salem News