If approved, a new public sculpture in the works for Detroit's Huntington Place convention center will create a monument to Detroit's past, present and future.
The Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee on Thursday approved a permit for the Detroit Regional Convention Authority to mount the 11-foot, spherical, bronze sculpture in front of the convention center.
First reported by Axios, the site proposal is set to go before the full Detroit City Council on Tuesday, said Geoffrey Harrison, principal at SDG Associates LLC, the architecture firm representing the Detroit Regional Convention Authority in the request.
The proposed site, a landscaped circle in front of the convention center, was designated for a major civic sculpture in 2013 on land recovered after Civic Center Drive was removed as part of renovations at the convention center, Harrison said in a letter to the council. Approval is needed, given that the site is in a public center zoning district.
Mary Klida, senior marketing and communications manager for Huntington Place confirmed the proposal will go before the council next week but declined further comment in advance of the vote.
The sculpture planned for the site was designed by Detroit artist Scott Hocking, according to documents SDG filed with the city council.
It was chosen following a national competition launched by the Detroit Regional Art Authority Art Foundation just before the pandemic. About 75 artists from around the country came to Detroit to visit the site and hear from the Detroit Regional Convention Authority in March 2020, Harrison said, and 33 of them submitted designs that summer.
Hocking and two artists from California were chosen by an independent jury of seven leaders from Detroit's art sector, including Detroit artist Hubert Massey who did the mural inside of the convention center near the ballroom; the city's director of arts and culture Rochelle Riley, representatives from the convention center, Wayne State University Art Collection, College for Creative Studies and others.
Each of the three finalists were granted $10,000 to complete their designs, and Hocking's design for the "Floating Citadel" was chosen from among them in fall 2021, after which SDG submitted the permit request to council, Harrison said.
The design includes a lighted bronze sphere inspired by the East Jordan Iron Works cast-iron gates found throughout the state, Hocking said in an artist's statement submitted to the City Council.
It's focused on Detroit's and Michigan's history and the convention center's status as a global hub of activity and is inspired by, among other things, ancient native shorelines, French voyagers, Grand Sewer ( which still flows westward under the center), the Detroit River, the city's automotive past and the mining history in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, along with the city's status as a creative and entrepreneurial beacon, Hocking said.
The sculpture takes its name from the original walled village boundaries and its historic defensive core, "the Citadel," which was located right where the sculpture will stand, he said.
Contingent on council's approval of the project, the Detroit Regional Convention Authority is looking to get the sculpture up by July or August, Harrison said.
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