Pensacola puts out call for artist to design new welcome sign at Gen. Chappie James Bridge
Pensacola is asking artists to submit designs for a three-dimensional welcome sign at the foot of the soon-to-be-finished Gen. Daniel "Chappie" James Jr. Bridge across Pensacola Bay.
The city is looking for a sign structure design to greet visitors to Pensacola and approximately 100,000 people a day who use the bridge to cross the bay into the city. The sign will be located where the old "Five Flags" display was located before it had to be removed to allow for the construction of the bridge.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said a lot of discussion between the city and the Florida Department of Transportation has gone on into what should be at the location.
"Instead of just picking one or two designs and hoping that it's something that the community would embrace, we've taken the extra step, which always has a little complexity to it," Reeves said last week.
Reeves said the winning artist would be compensated for their work.
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"We want to make sure that we are respecting people's time and their livelihood, and so absolutely, just to clarify the city will be compensating the winning artist for their project," Reeves said. "Now, we can't give a scope or range because there's such a wide scope of what the scale of the project could be."
The city is working in partnership with Dalrymple Sallis Architecture to run the contest and has put together an application packet for artists to review before submitting a design that is available on the city's website.
Artist should review the application packet, and the city will hold an interest meeting on Thursday at 9 a.m. in City Hall.
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Design should be submitted by email to submissions@cityofpensacola.com.
"This really will be our entryway from Gulf Breeze, from Highway 98, and a lot of folks will see it," Reeves said. "We wanted to make sure that we were able to pick something that was reflective of what our community wants."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola seeks artists to design welcome sign at Chappie James bridge
