The One All-Weather Display at the Flower Show is Terrific

The Philadelphia Flower Show has opened and will remain open until Sunday. That means this is your first chance to see the winning designs from the bicycle rack contest we ran last year!

Spiral, by Collin Robinson. Destined for the PMA's Perelman Building

Seven of the ten winning racks are featured in the display, which can be seen in the Grand Hall Concourse near the food and drink (closest entrance is the Market Street entrance between 11th and 12th). This summer, all ten racks will be permanently installed in prominent places in and near Center City Philadelphia.

Pretzel, by Peter E. Brown & Barbara Ann Sprague; Ed Ocelus and Tom Ransom, fabrication

We will have glossy photos of all the racks to share with you next week. But in the meantime, we encourage you to check them out in person. While the idea of attending a flower show right now might seem absurd, it's actually the best in-city respite we can think of from the feeling that winter will never leave.

Lastly, but not least-ly, a tremendous number of people worked very hard to bring this display together.

Artists | Fabricators (not all fabricators known)

• Peter E. Brown & Barbara Ann Sprague | Ed Ocelus and Tom Ransom of R/J Florig Industrial Co. Inc. and Mark A. Franz of Franz Structural Engineering LLC
• Kathleen Fruge-Brown (whose "Bird" rack narrowly missed inclusion in the display)
• Warren Holzman | Iron Studio
• Carin Mincemoyer
• Collin Robinson
• Nathaniel Ross
• Ralph Tullie | RJ Florig Industrial Co. Inc.
• Juliet Whelan | En-Motion Design & RefreshTech

Display Designers and PR

• Tim Beitz, 160over90
• Kimberly Hallman, 160over90
• Cory McCall, 160over90
• Ralph Tullie

Partners in the project

• Margot Berg, OACCE
• Katie Pinder, Bicycle Coalition
• Aaron Ritz, MOTU
• Leslye Silver, Bicycle Coalition
• Shannon Slusher, 160over90
• Cozen O'Connor
• Advanced Sports International/Fuji
• The Knight Foundation
• PHS and the Flower Show
• Paul Newman
• Grace Kelly

If you're reading this and thinking, "Hey, this is a pretty nifty thing the Bicycle Coalition is doing!" then you are a prime candidate to make these kinds of initiatives happen again. How can you help? By becoming a member of the Bicycle Coalition right now. We can't snap our fingers and make unique bicycle racks appear on the streets - it takes time, effort, and relationships, and your membership makes those things possible.

Philly's New Bike Racks are Coming to the Philadelphia Flower Show

Last year we partnered up with the Office of Arts, Culture, and Creative Economy to bring art bike racks to Philadelphia's streets. We won a grant, put out a call for artists, and announced the winners. Now these unique bike racks are being fabricated right now, as we all sit here in our velvet-lined work pants, sip our coffee, and plot how we're going to sneak off to watch USA-Canada men's hockey at noon. (This is what we're all doing, right?)

A mid-production shot of "Spiral," a bike rack by Collin Robinson

These racks will eventually adorn some of Center City Philadelphia's most prominent locations, like the PMA's Perelman Building and Sister Cities Park. But the public's first glimpse of the racks is coming as a sculpture garden display at the Philadelphia Flower Show, March 1-9 in the Convention Center.

Another rack, "Birds" by Kathleen Fruge-Brown, to be displayed at the Flower Show

Up to eight racks total will be on display in the Grand Hall, most easily accessible via the Convention Center entrance on Market Street between 11th and 12th. (Map here.)

These racks will pull double duty: enlivening our streets with art, and helping ease Center City's desperate need for more bike parking. Because why lock to a boring old U-rack when you can lock up to a bird?

"Bike Rack" by Warren Holzman and Iron Studio takes its inspiration from the Fibonacci spiral
and Philadelphia's blacksmithing and steel shipbuilding history

This project was one of 43 winners of a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knight Arts Challenge. MOTU is also playing a big part in running the contest, determining specs, and the racks' eventual installation this summer.

Presenting the Winning Designs for Our Artist-Designed Bike Rack Contest

This past summer we put out a call for artists to design bike racks for significant public places around Philadelphia. We held a contest, partnering with the City of Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy and made possible by a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knight Arts Challenge.

This last week we finally were able to share the winning designs. Some of these racks are site-specific, designed to reflect the specific spots at which they will be placed. Others are more flexible. They are designed to hold either 2 or 4 bikes, and can be grouped together depending on space and financial restrictions.

Birds!

These racks still need to be fabricated and installed, but we are hoping they will begin to appear around the city this spring or summer.

Faithful dogs posting vigilant watch over your bike.

Click on the images for bigger versions. You can see the rest of the winning designs below, or check them out in this gallery. Are you a business or property owner and interested in getting one of these racks installed? Contact Margot Berg at the City for more information: margot.berg@phila.gov.

Calling Artists: Design Philly's New Art Bike Racks (Request for Proposals)

When you lock your bike in Philadelphia, your options probably look like this:

These racks are functional, but Philly is an artistic town and we can dream and design better.

In partnership with the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, we are issuing a call for proposals for bike racks to be installed in Center City (and possibly elsewhere in Philly). This competition is open to all artists and design professionals.

An 80' tall steampunk Oliver capable
of securing 1,200 bikes would be a bold move.
Just sayin...

Our goal is to use the same pavement twice: bring some desperately-needed bike parking to our streets, while enlivening our streetscapes with new public art.

For full competition details, including the project budget, selection process, submission procedures and design guidelines, please see the official RFP document.

Timeline:

• Request for Proposals: NOW! (What can you conjure, Philly?)
• Submission Deadline: September 4, 2013
• Artist(s) notified: October, 2013
• Bike racks installed: Spring/summer, 2014

This is happening thanks to a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knight Arts Challenge.

PDF: Artist-Designed Bike Rack RFP

Announcing a New Art Bike Rack Campaign

We are excited to announce that we will be working with the Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy to bring art bike racks to Philadelphia.

This is happening thanks to a $50,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its Knight Arts Challenge. The Knight Arts Challenge is a $9 million initiative funding innovative projects that engages and enriches Philadelphia’s communities. The grant award winners were announced yesterday.

We love the inverted U rack, but there's so much more that can be done with that piece of sidewalk furniture. Everyone knows how desperately Center City and other neighborhoods in town need more bike parking, so we're excited to be able to help address that need while adding some local art to our sidewalks.

Matching funds for the grant must be obtained, and then a call will be put out for artists to submit designs for the racks. We will keep you posted on this exciting new initiative as it takes shape.

We were one of 43 Knight Arts Challenge winners. You can check out the full list of winners* on the Knight Arts website.

*A lot of terrific recipients in this list, but holy moly - Pig Iron Theater Company and Dr. Dog will be collaborating on a "concert spectacle billed as a multimedia opera in the tradition of Pink Floyd’s 'The Wall'." Color us excited.