Design Artist Needed to Create Environmental Experience in Central Hall

EDMONTON — Edmonton Airports is pleased to invite designers and artists from across Alberta to participate in a competition to create an appropriate yet compelling design concept for the yet-to-be-built Central Hall phase of the Air Terminal Redevelopment (ATR) Project at Edmonton International Airport.

The process begins Friday, June 9, 2000 with a half-day briefing session beginning at 11AM at the Nisku Inn-Nisku. The deadline for design submissions is 4PM June 28, 2000. The selected design concept will be publicly announced in mid-July.

The Central Hall, scheduled for completion in the summer of 2002, will be the signature environment within the new Air Terminal Redevelopment Project. Its basic design focus is to create a primary intersection for traffic flow within Edmonton International Airport and to be the crossroads for all domestic arrivals.

The Central Hall design concept encompasses sufficient scale and capacity to enable development of a space permitting the creation of a unique and memorable experience, defining the Capital Region’s international airport to all customers. The intent of the design competition is to create an “environmental experience” within the Central Hall. The concept must also capture a “sense of place” that reflects the Capital Region’s aesthetics and the spirit of its peoples.

The project is expected to be of interest to visual artists from a diversity of disciplines; artists, designers in several fields including exhibit design, interior design or industrial design; architects, landscape architects or others with appropriate experience in spatial concepts and designs.

Two years ago, Edmonton Airports and our Capital Region stakeholders started the $265.5 million Air Terminal Redevelopment Project. When completed, the terminal and aircraft apron area will almost double in size. The vision of this expansion is to improve the facility for both current demands and future growth. At the beginning of the design process, Edmonton Airports defined the following objectives for the ATR Project.

To celebrate the Edmonton region and Alberta in an aesthetically pleasing facility,
To reflect the culture and heritage of the Edmonton Region,
To ensure customer convenience, comfort and satisfaction,
To provide clarity of space and function within a friendly environment,
To enable efficient airline operations.
These objectives were consolidated into the Air Terminal Redevelopment Project Mission Statement, which reads…

“Celebrate the life-flow of the North Saskatchewan River and the drama of the prairie sky and light, while remembering the cultural history of Edmonton and looking forward to the future.”

Submitted design concepts must allow for a significant art opportunity within the Central Hall that may include a mix of media such as hard/soft landscape, expanse of space, art, water and/or other natural elements.

The competition is open to all artists, designers and other allied professionals who are resident in Alberta and who are Canadian citizens or landed immigrants. A committee appointed by Edmonton Airports will review submitted concepts before making a recommendation to Edmonton Airports’ Board of Directors.