Schantz Avenue Bridge
Vicki Scuri SiteWorks
Schantz, 2020
Corten steel
Location: West Schantz Avenue and South Dixie Avenue
The City of Kettering replaced the Schantz Avenue Bridge and commissioned Vicki Scuri SiteWorks (Lake Forest Park, WA) to integrate artwork into the project site. Scuri designed the steel fencing and adjacent tower to be a visible gateway for those entering and leaving the city. The steel’s decorative patterning was inspired by the historic trolleys that originally ran north to south along present-day Dixie Drive and the ornamentation of the historic cash registers manufactured nearby. Of the design, Scuri wrote: “The artwork…promote[s] a more livable environment and celebrate[s] Kettering and its residents.”
Schantz was commissioned by CitySites Public Art Program with the City of Kettering.
Vicki Scuri SiteWorks: Schantz Avenue Bridge, Kettering
Thank you to the City of Kettering leadership including Mayor Patterson and City Council, the Art in Public Places Committee, the Kettering Arts Council and Kettering stakeholders Jerry Spangler (Exhibit Concepts), Corey Miller (Kettering City Schools), Tess Cortes (The Modern College of Design), Eva Buttacavoli (The Contemporary Dayton), Brady Kress (Dayton History) and Rick Meade (Calvary Cemetery) for their advisement on this project.
Project Team
Artists: Vicki Scuri, Vicki Scuri SiteWorks with Alexandr Polzin
CitySites Project Manager: Shayna V. McConville
City Engineering Staff: John Sliemers and Todd Livesay
Engineering Design: Steve Butler, IBI Group, Inc.
Construction: Sean Wade, Scott Brown, Eagle Bridge Company
Metalwork: Scott Schauffele, C.M. Steel, Inc.
Lighting: Debra Rettich, Vincent Lighting Systems
About the Project
The City of Kettering CitySites Public Art Program is proud to announce the selection of Vicki Scuri SiteWorks (Lake Forest Park, WA) for the design of a permanent artwork on the Schantz Avenue Bridge. Scuri’s extensive public art experience, community engagement practices and innovative methods of art integration into public infrastructure projects contributed to her winning proposal.
Through an extensive review process, Kettering’s Art in Public Places Committee and a panel of residents and community stakeholders reviewed 94 artist submissions from around the world. Four semi-finalists were selected through various criteria including artistic excellence and the potential to create a signature piece for Kettering. Over the course of several months, the semi-finalists visited the bridge, met with City of Kettering staff, and interviewed residents to develop ideas for aesthetic enhancements to the site.
Scuri’s proposal includes pattern designs derived from the stained-glass of the trolley cars that ran along Dixie, and past and present stories, events and inventions discovered during her research and interviews. The proposal also addresses the required addition of a security fence on the bridge, which Scuri designed as a marker, or gateway, into Kettering to be experienced both entering and leaving the city.
