Hood River Gorge Bike Hub
Paths of Water and Earth
Angelina Merino-Hiedel & Joel Hiedel, Portland, OR
BACKGROUND
Six communities along the Gorge banded together to develop a system of Gorge Bike Hubs. The Bike Hubs are a network of welcome centers, information centers, trailheads and rest areas for travelers to encourage visitors to stage their trips from these communities’ central business cores, boosting economic development. Each city has developed a bike hub design unique to their community, sharing a logo and look, with a wayfinding map.
Hood River’s Gorge Bike Hub is located at the intersection of 3rd and State Street at the heart of a recently completed $5M Urban Renewal project. To best reflect this unique place in the Gorge, the City of Hood River commissioned an original Gorge Bike Hub art installation that captures the beauty, diversity and vibrancy of the community. A permanent piece of public art will further enhance the location creating a distinctive sense of place and memorable experience encouraging community dialogue and most importantly, accessible to everyone.
SELECTION
Art of Community developed and distributed the Call to Artists throughout the west requesting portfolios from regional artists for the Hood River Bike Hub located at the intersection of 3rd and State Street. We talked to and met with numerous professionals and received a total of 19 submittals. Art of Community met and reviewed each submittal and recommended commissioning Angelina Merino-Hiedel and Joel Hiedel from Portland, OR.
Marino-Hiedel's vision, use of form and color captures a sense of optimism and playfulness that will attract both locals and visitors to the Bike Hub enhancing the location and creating a distinctive sense of place in our downtown and memorable experience in Hood River.
Following is Marino-Hiedel's submittal statement:
We are native Oregonians with a national reputation. Our recent projects include works for Alaska 1% for art, Seeds Affordable Housing in Seattle, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and functional sculptures for Estacada’s bicycle plaza. Our process thrives on communication and research with the goal to realize unique site specific art. Our style is narrative with abstracted figurative content. In our practice we explore cultures, diversity, history and nature. We consider the arts committee's vision during project development. We are interested in creating a new site specific work that speak about nature or salmon returning to spawn. Our work samples include both colorful and natural steel finished sculptures. Some of our murals are included as examples of diversity content/scale of work. The natural steel works often employs salvaged materials.
PROCESS & REVIEW OF WORK IN PROGRESS - photos below
1) Step One - Design Charette – Marino-Hiedel visit Hood River and meet with Art of Community to talk about the culture, diversity, history and nature in Hood River for design inspiration.
2) Step Two - Concept Designs - Marino-Hiedel create three alternative concept directions.
3) Step Three - Design Selection – Marino-Hiedel visit Hood River to present options to Art of Community to select a final design direction, followed by a presentation to the City of Hood River Redevelopment Agency for review and final approval.
4) Step Four - Design Development – Marino-Hiedel develop the preferred alternative to approval.
5) Step Five - Fabrication - Marino-Hiedel fabricate artwork.
6) Step Six - Installation - Marino-Hiedel and Art of Community install the artwork on or before April 7, 2018.
PHOTOS OF THE PROCESS
