Art in Architecture - CISA HQ BLDG at St Elizabeths West Campus SE Wash., DC

The General Services Administration (GSA) Art in Architecture Program commissions American artists (citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents or Permanent Workers of the United States) to create publicly scaled and permanently installed artworks for Federal buildings nationwide.

GSA announces an opportunity for a federal art commission in conjunction with the new construction of the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) headquarters building in Washington, D.C.   

GSA will design and construct a new DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) HQ at the St Elizabeths - West Campus located in SE Washington, DC. St Elizabeths is a National Historic Landmark (NHL) and former mental health hospital that was previously operated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The St Elizabeths West Campus is located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington, D.C. The West Campus, a 176-acre site, is situated on the “topographic bowl” of the District of Columbia and offers panoramic views of the city. The campus contains 62 historic buildings, 134 character defining landscape features and a historic cemetery, in which soldiers from the Civil War era, as well as former patients, are interred.

GSA allocates one-half of one percent of the estimated construction costs of new or modernized Federal facilities for art commissions.  The art budget for the CISA headquarters project is estimated to be $1.8 million.  One or more artists will be awarded a fixed-price contract for a commission.

Artists who wish to be considered for this and all future GSA art commissions must submit application materials to GSA’s National Artists Registry (Registry).  The Registry constitutes the qualified list of artists for this and all GSA commissions.  Instructions on how to join the Registry are available on the following Web site:

www.gsa.gov/artinarchitecture

All artists who wish to be considered as candidates for a commission for the CISA headquarters project must have their application materials submitted and received by GSA by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on December 17, 2021.  Artists’ submissions received after the deadline will not be considered for this project, but will be eligible for consideration on future GSA commissions alongside the other artists on the Registry.  Artists already on the Registry do not need to resubmit, but may elect to update their information prior to the deadline. 

GSA evaluates artists based on the following criteria: the media, materials, content, and style of the artist’s past work, along with the artist’s past performance and experience with commissions or projects similar to the one described in this synopsis.  GSA will contact shortlisted artists and ask them to submit additional information, including a statement that the artist can perform the work associated with the GSA commission within the identified budget.  GSA will count the combined weight of all the selection criteria as significantly more important than price. 

At a minimum, the scope of services for this commission will require: collaboration with the building project’s lead design architect; development of preliminary and final art concepts; participation in project meetings and conservation reviews as necessary; fabrication of the artwork; and installation of the artwork at the project site.