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Conservators of Public Art Collections Since 1997

2023-2028 NATIONAL PUBLIC ART COLLECTION (GSA)

Multi-Year IDIQ GSA contracts have been awarded to McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc. on a competitive basis, for conservation services to the national Public Art collection with an expenditure limit of over twenty-two million dollars for the total contract period of two individual contracts.

For the over 26 years, since 1997, McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory has been busily engaged in the conservation of Public Art throughout the United States, principally in work caring for the federal national collection, the Art-in-Architecture collection. This enormous collection of artworks and our care of it is in locations on federal properties in all states of the contiguous United States, and also in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. By now we have been engaged in Public Art conservation projects in all these areas.

2020 BI-STATE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

For the City of St. Louis, MO

20-RFP-106579-MD Repair and Restoration of Artwork

For the conservation of the public art collection. Metro, an enterprise of Bi-State Development, has a collection of public art through its Arts in Transit program. The majority of the artwork is located along the MetroLink system alignment and MetroLink/MetroBus transit centers. Some are located adjacent to bus shelters, and Park and Ride lots. These works are varied and are composed of a diverse array of materials and methods of fabrication, with many continuously exposed to the outside elements and public interaction. 

Base Year: May 11, 2020 –  May 10, 2021

Option Year 1: May 11, 2021 – May 10, 2022

Option Year 3: May 11, 2022 – May 10, 2023

2017-2024 NATIONAL PUBLIC ART COLLECTION (GSA)

Multi-Year IDIQ GSA contracts have been awarded to McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory, Inc. on a competitive basis, for conservation services to the national Public Art collection with an expenditure limit of over twenty-two million dollars for the total contract period of two individual contracts.

For the over 20 years, since 1997, McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory has been busily engaged in the conservation of Public Art throughout the United States, principally in work caring for the federal national collection, the Art-in-Architecture collection. This enormous collection of artworks and our care of it is in locations on federal properties in all states of the contiguous United States, and also in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. By now we have been engaged in Public Art conservation projects in all these areas.

2019-2024 NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

ID/IQ Contract 47PM069D0001

        $13,481,000.00 5-Year Total

2017-2022 NATIONAL

ID/IQ Contract 47PA0117D0004

        $8,750,000.00 5-Year Total

SEE MORE GSA CONTRACTS

2018-2021 STATE OF UTAH PUBLIC ART

November 2018 – December 2019

$100,000.00

Amended Period: August 2019 – June 2022

Additional $100,000.00

A state-wide artwork condition survey has been completed and specific artworks have been targeted for conservation treatments.

2020 ARLINGTON COUNTY, VIRGINIA

Initial Period Ending June 2020

For the balance of the fiscal year ending in June, 2020, Arlington County has established an initial contract with McKay Lodge, Inc. for conservation reviews of new Public Art commissions.

2020-2024 FORT WORTH, TEXAS

October 2019 – September 2020 (Renewable for 3 More Years)

$25,000 Annually

A professional services contract with Fort Worth Public Art, Tarrant County, Texas, for conservation consultations and services to its Public Art collection was awarded for the period October 2019 – September 2020 with three (3) additional extension years, for a first year limit of $25,000.00. Contracts for the conservation of the Fort Worth, Texas Public Art collection have been in force since 2013.

2020 UPPER ARLINGTON, OHIO

The City of Upper Arlington, Ohio has issued a purchase order for a survey of the condition of their Public Art collection.

2019 – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

The Civic Art Collection and Public Art Program of the City of San Francisco has made McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory a qualified vendor to provide conservation-related services to its collections.

2006 – 2017 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

During 2017, McKay Lodge Conservation again shall assist the District of Columbia in the conservation of its Public Art collection. Already site visits have been made for condition assessments of a number of artworks. For the third consecutive fiscal year, 2016, McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory has been awarded a sole source contract as public art conservator for the District of Columbia through the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

In 2006 McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory provided the DC Public Art Collection with its very first condition survey.

CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO

The company is in its third annual contract with the City of Columbus, Ohio for conservation of its collection. The work of the first contract was the provision of a collection-wide condition survey and the construction of a Microsoft Access database to manage the condition information. The subsequent contracts covered maintenance of many artworks in the city’s Public Art collection.

CITY OF CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA

In 2012, McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory and Public Art Consultant Renee Piechocki (Pittsburgh) jointly served a contract with the City of Charleston, WV with a comprehensive collection condition survey, provision of a collection management database in Microsoft Access, and a public art master plan. The submittals included a Maintenance Plan, Collection Preservation Policies and Guidelines; Mission Statement and Records Management Plan, Staffing and Funding Recommendations, a presentation to the public and city stakeholders, and assistance with promotion and growth of the collection.

CITY OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA

2008 CONDITION SURVEY AND COLLECTION DATABASE

GSA

The United States government has commissioned and maintained the largest public art collection in the country, from late 19th century commissions, through the various New Deal programs, to the current Art-in-Architecture program.  This collection is managed by the U.S. General Services Administration and parts by the U.S. Postal Service.

Work with Public Art in the GSA

National Capital Region

McKay Lodge, Inc. is currently active in its second 5-year ID/IQ sole-source contract with the GSA National Capital Region for the preservation and restoration of Public Art and significant architectural arts and features that are part of both historic and modern federal buildings in Washington, DC and its surrounding counties. The public art contract award has a not-to-exceed value of $14,800,000.00. The work encompasses both art works such as mosaics, sculpture, and textiles and significant interior and exterior architectural features of these buildings.

The company currently has architectural art and features preservation projects in Washington, DC in various states of completion with a total projects value of approximately 1.5 million dollars.

Work with Public Art in the GSA

Art-in-Architecture Program

The company has been the sole contract conservator for the GSA Art-in-Architecture Program for over ten years caring for federal public art installations dating from 1973 throughout the United States. This collection contains much of the greatest public artwork in America and the collection expands with commissions every year for new federal building construction. The company is now in its third consecutive 5-year indefinite quantity/indefinite delivery (ID/IQ) public art contract contract with GSA caring for this national collection.

The GSA Art in Architecture Program oversees the commissioning of artworks for new federal buildings nationwide. These artworks enhance the civic meaning of federal architecture and showcase the vibrancy of American visual arts. Together, the art and architecture of federal buildings creates a lasting cultural legacy for the people of the United States.

GSA reserves one-half of one percent of the estimated construction cost of each new federal building to commission project artists. A panel composed of art professionals, civic and community representatives, the project’s lead design architect, and GSA staff meets to discuss opportunities for artists to participate in the building project. This panel reviews a diverse pool of artist candidates and nominates finalists for GSA to evaluate. Artists who receive federal commissions work with the project architects and others as members of a design team to ensure that the artworks are meaningfully integrated into the overall project.

In this capacity, McKay Lodge, Inc. routinely:

  • Provides treatments for condition problems in over 200 public works of art located at federal spaces throughout the United States. Some treatments have been performed on-site and others at our large facilities located just outside of Oberlin, Ohio.  Typically these art works are sculptures, mosaics and fountains.
  • Examines, assesses, and reports on the condition of a collection over 200 installed public works of art located throughout the United States and advises the government on treatment needs. Typically these art works are sculptures, mosaics and fountains.
  • Writes maintenance procedures for examined works of public art on federal properties throughout the United States for central planning.
  • Writes care guidelines for GSA to deliver over its network to property managers so they will know how to protect the public art on their properties and in their buildings.
  • Participates as a “Professional Peer” on review committees including architects, engineers, and art curators for new federal public art commissions. In this capacity McKay Lodge, Inc. speaks to matters of construction, stability, maintenance, safety and operation as these are relevant to particular new commissions under consideration.

Work with Public Art in the GSA

Design Excellence Program

McKay Lodge, Inc. participates in the GSA Design Excellence Program on technical and preservation matters involving art in the architectural environment.  This participation is as a technical reviewer at a phase in the process of commissioning public art when matters are considered by the artists, conservators, architects, engineers and GSA officials relating to the effects of location on the maintenance and preservation of artworks, projections of maintenance costs, and any recommendations for materials or construction alterations that may benefit the longevity of the artwork with the artist’s approval.

GSA manages architects and engineers to provide design for federal clients needing new workspace. To achieve top-quality design talent, GSA has instituted the Design Excellence Program, which includes a streamlined two-step architect/engineer selection process and the use of private-sector peers such as conservators to provide feedback to the architect/engineer of record.

The program stresses creativity. It also streamlines the way GSA hires architects and engineers, substantially cutting the cost of competing for GSA design contracts.

The Design Excellence Program operates through GSA’s Public Buildings Service (PBS). GSA’s PBS directs the federal government’s multibillion-dollar building program, which includes construction, renovation, alteration, and repair of federal office buildings, courthouses, and other facilities. Most of GSA’s work is in partnership with architect/engineer groups from the private sector.

Work with Public Art in the GSA

Fine Arts Program

The company has been the sole contract conservator for the GSA Fine Arts Program for over ten years caring for the older federal public art installations throughout the United States.

Work of these contracts includes:

  • The design and performance of necessary preservation and repair treatments, temporary relocations for building renovations, and reinstallations
  • Condition assessments and technical studies, materials identification, problem solving and recommendations for treatments.
  • Designing and writing maintenance procedures and identification of optimal maintenance products.

These are mostly outdoor sculptural works of stone and bronze commissioned from the late 19th century through the New Deal programs by the United States government for the enjoyment and edification of the public by adorning public spaces in this country.

The Fine Arts Program manages GSA’s Fine Arts Collection to ensure its safety, accessibility, preservation, and appropriate use in order to enhance and promote high-quality work environments for federal agencies and the public they serve.

The Fine Arts Collection is one of our nation’s oldest and largest public art collections. It consists of permanently installed and moveable mural paintings, sculpture, architectural or environmental works of art, and works on paper dating from 1850 to the present. These civic works of art are in federal buildings and courthouses across the United States. In addition, more than 20,000 small moveable New Deal works of art are on long-term loan to museums and other nonprofit institutions. Maintained by GSA as a part of our national and cultural heritage, the Fine Arts Collection serves as a reminder of the important tradition of individual creative expression.

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