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Steven Weitzman, Master of the multi-disciplinary approach to public art, is an award winning designer of urban spaces, nationally acclaimed artist and sculptor. Spanning a successful career of over forty years, Weitzman’s capabilities include large scale highway and bridge projects, heroic scale figurative bronze, glass, terrazzo, commissioned art works, urban and environmental designs. As both an entrepreneur and innovator, he is one of very few artists who have been able to combine his creative talents with impressive business aptitude and mechanical skills. Central to all of his endeavors, is a gift to incorporate aesthetics into each project he stamps with the Weitzman brand.

For more information, visit weitzmanstudios.com or email us at Rita@RAD-Media-Group.com.

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CDR has partnered with numerous engineering firms and departments of transportation on multiple infrastructure projects across the country. One of the most compelling features of CDR’s work includes the modular design of transportation aesthetics, which has been implemented across multiple projects in Oklahoma. Watch the case study to learn how the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) and surrounding communities have responded to cost-saving and culturally connected design.

Modular designs allow our clients to reconfigure multiple design patterns into an infinite number of combinations to create miles of unique designs. For example, designs for the US-54 Kellogg/Woodlawn Interchange walls incorporated 48 modular panels to produce miles of distinctive designs along the interstate (https://www.creativedesignresolutions.com/portfolio/us54-kellogg-woodlawn-interchange-walls).

The National Recognition Award will be presented at the ACEC’s Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) Gala on May 7, 2019, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. The gala will be a part of the 2019 ACEC Annual Convention in Washington, D.C.

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Over the past 20 years, Creative Design Resolutions Inc. has partnered with more than a quarter of US departments of 5 transportation on aesthetic design. The company has designed bridges; multi-mile corridor plans; and larger multi-modal interchange projects. Done early in the process, aesthetic designs can be developed alongside engineers of record, is allowing for the complete integration of engineering and aesthetics. Most infrastructure projects are cast in concrete. A mold, called a form liner, fits into the form and is filled with concrete to create the aesthetic and structural elements of a highway or bridge project. When the form and form liner are stripped off, their design is permanently impressed into the surface of the concrete.

CDR begins its aesthetic design in conversation with clients, stakeholders, and residents. Exploring local history and culture, agriculture and commerce, and flora and fauna provides inspiration for meaningful design. As the Oklahoma Department of Transportation began rebuilding infrastructure and replacing bridges, the department wanted to focus not only on functionality but also aesthetics. ODOT aimed to leave visitors with an impression and make citizens proud of their transportation system. The department engaged CDR as a design consultant after a previous sound wall project received negative feedback from local residents. The aesthetic design concepts had been initiated by ODOT and the artist without stakeholder input. Getting their involvement likely would have resulted in a design that better reflected local culture and symbolism, and that ·achieved more buy-in.

In contrast, in 2009 ODOT, CDR, the City of Catoosa, the City of Oklahoma, and the Cherokee Indian Nation worked together on a bridge project in Catoosa. The stakeholders’ meeting included members of several Native American tribes, city officials, casino representatives, business owners, and community members. It was challenging to bring all these individuals together to review concepts and reach a decision that met everyone’s needs and desires. However, CDR’s mediation and stakeholder compromise led the various parties to agreement on a single design that ODOT could afford. Oklahoma’s strong connection to the Chickasaw and other local Indian nations are also manifest in CDR-designed representations of the Osage peace shield on the Winstar Boulevard Bridge, the Broadway Extension at the Memorial Road Interchange, and the Heritage Bridge. The modularity of form liners allows them to be mixed and matched across projects to make numerous unique patterns. Each time they’re reused, their overall cost decreases.

ODOT has used some form liners up to 10 times. However, what is most important is the unbelievably positive response from communities to the aesthetic designs now systematically incorporated into state projects. ODOT has received a good deal of positive feedback to the aesthetic details on the state’s bridges and roadways. Even more telling is the willingness from communities to participate, both in concept and in funding, on the aesthetic details in their projects because they don’t want to be left out. They like what they are seeing in the other communities with aesthetically pleasing projects. These aesthetic elements are now seen as an important, if not essential, part of the culture in Oklahoma.

Steven Weitzman is president & CEO of Creative Design Resolutions Inc., in Brentwood, Maryland. Casey Shell, P.E., is chief engineer and former director of operations for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

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Peggy chats with Steven Weitzman, president and CEO, Creative Design Resolutions, who says there is an opportunity for infrastructure to visually speak to the people in the community. He asks: Why can’t infrastructure express the story of where you are? He adds that infrastructure will always need to be safe first, functional next, and then aesthetics can come in and that the company is bilingual—as it speaks both aesthetics and engineering.
creativedesignresolutions.com

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