The Price Tag for These 10 Federal Art Projects May Surprise You

Alex Anderson / January 05, 2015

In 1962, Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a report for President John F. Kennedy on the subject of government office space. This report, “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture,” recommended a three-point policy to guide the government in incorporating architecture and fine arts within federal buildings.

Following these guidelines, the General Services Administration formed the Art in Architecture Program with the goal of enhancing the “civic meaning of federal architecture” and to “showcase the vibrancy of American visual arts.”

According to GSA’s website, this program reserves “one-half of 1 percent of the estimated construction costs for each new federal building” for pieces of commissioned art.

Between 2011 and 2014, the GSA spent $11,055,412 on commissioned art for federal buildings.

The Daily Signal submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to track down these works of commissioned art. The following drawings are renditions created by Glenn Foden of actual works of art commissioned for federal buildings through the Art in Architecture program. The dog in each drawing represents the idea of keeping a watchful eye on government spending.

1) Thanks from the Saved Ones
Mark di Suvero
U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters
Washington, D.C.
$1,113,000

(Rotating stainless-steel sculpture suspended over a water basin.)

2) Hedge Wedge
Robert Irwin
U.S. Courthouse
San Diego, Calif.
$825,000

(Zig-zagging hedges surrounded by weathered steel in the courthouse plaza.)

3) Kites
Jacob Hashimoto
General Services Administration Headquarters
Washington, D.C.
$641,427

(Hundreds of screen-printed kites suspended in a hallway atrium.)

4)Nocturnal (Navigation)
Teresita Fernandez
U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters
Washington, D.C.
$600,000

(A wall sculpture composed of resin blocks imitating celestial navigation charts.)

5) An Album: Sewing into Borderlines
Kimsooja
Mariposa Land Port of Entry
Nogales, Ariz.
$550,000

(Silent video portraits of community members who commute across the border regularly.)

6) E Pluribus
Ralph Helmick
U.S. Courthouse
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
$450,000

(A steel sculpture suspended from the ceiling of the courthouse atrium.)

7) Three Columns
Robert H. Jackson
U.S. Courthouse
Buffalo, N.Y.
$400,000

(Sixteen stained glass windows depicting the “dignity” and “transparency” of the federal judicial system.)

8) Aerie
Buster Simpson
Henry M. Jackson Federal Building
Seattle, Wash.
$305,000

(Twenty limestone spheres representing the engagement between “natural” and “built” systems.)

9) Curtain Wall
Annie Lindberg
Richard Bolling Federal Building
Kansas City, Mo.
$295,465

(Four-stories of printed glass surrounding the building’s escalator concourse.)

10) Fossils
Ellen Harvey
Internal Revenue Service
Andover, Mass.
$225,000

(A hand-carved marble sculpture featuring computers buried within rock.)

>>> San Diego Port to Get $500k from Government for Artwork

Here’s the complete list of expenditures for the Art in Architecture Program from 2011 through September 2014: