Arts Commission ranks bench designs and recommends seating-wall artist for Corn Palace Park

The Sunnyvale Arts Commission on June 18 reviewed conceptual designs for public art at the new Corn Palace Park and submitted ranked recommendations to send to the City Council. Commissioners ranked seven bench proposals (selecting three preferred designs) and recommended one artist for the park's 76-foot seating wall.

Commissioners voted to accept a ranking of bench proposals and to forward that recommendation to council; they also approved a recommendation for the seating wall design by motion. The seating-wall recommendation passed the commission 3-2; the benches ranking was adopted by the commission vote and will be forwarded to City Council for final approval, currently scheduled for July 29.

Kristen Dance, Sunnyvale's public art manager, described the Corn Palace Park project as a two-acre, city-owned neighborhood park on Toyin and Lily Avenues. She said the park budget includes $43,000 for public art and that a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) distributed in November 2024 drew 32 applications: 17 applicants for the long seating wall and 15 for the smaller backless bench commissions. A public-art review committee shortlisted 10 designs (three for the seating wall and seven for the three bench locations) to move to conceptual presentations.

Commissioners asked each shortlisted artist to present a conceptual design and answered follow-up questions about durability, materials, seating comfort and accessibility. Presenting artists for the benches included Annie Capelli (ceramic tile mosaics), Zoe Caron (botanical and natural-history imagery), Solomon Bassop (pigmented glass-reinforced concrete relief benches), Liz Hickok (kiln-fired porcelain and glow-in-the-dark tile accents), Carrie Lederer (graphic porcelain tile tiles), Alex Muddle (recycled glass mosaic), and Amber J. Smith (sculptural mosaic corn theme). For the seating wall, the finalists were Annie Capelli (sgraffito ceramic tile storyboard), Juan Lopez (handmade tile mosaics with mirror elements and a "water's edge" concept), and Elva (Elva) Raquel (larger mixed-size tile mosaic referencing Corn Palace architecture and fruit motifs).

Commission discussion about bench proposals focused on long-term durability and user comfort. Artists described materials and fabrication details: kiln-fired mineral glazes and porcelain tiles (Capelli, Hickok), glass-recycled mosaics (Muddle), pigmented GFRC (Bassop), and Paltia over armature with tile surfacing (Amber Smith). Hickok noted that test tile samples and fabrication partners produce kiln-fired porcelain tiles she said are UV-resistant and intended for decades of outdoor exposure.

On the seating wall, commissioners heard Capelli's storyboard approach rooted in local history and indigenous creation stories, Juan Lopez's water-edge mosaic concept using mirror and tile to create movement, and Elva Raquel's tile mosaic that reinterprets Corn Palace architectural forms and fruit motifs. Commissioners recorded their ranked preferences; the tally produced a commission recommendation with Annie Capelli as the top-ranked seating-wall artist (the item passed on a 3-2 vote).

The commission also adopted a ranked recommendation for three bench designs (to be forwarded to council). The chair summarized the bench ranking as: Liz Hickok (first), Alex Muddle (second), and Carrie Lederer (third). Commissioners made a procedural motion to accept the ranking and the motion passed with the same three commissioners approving and two excused.

Dance said the commission's recommendations will be forwarded to City Council for final approval on July 29. Staff noted that one artist (Annie Capelli) had entries in both the bench and seating-wall shortlists and that the RFQ limited an artist to a single commission; if selected by council for both, that artist would need to choose one commission and allow the next-ranked proposal to move forward.

Commissioners thanked the presenting artists and noted the difficulty of selecting among strong proposals. No public comments on the items were recorded prior to the commission votes during the meeting.