Following last week’s look at an opening for Architecture Department Head at Penn State, we are using our Job Highlights series this week to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Designer / Project Coordinator at Cliff Garten Studio.

The successful candidate will join the artist’s studio in Venice, CA, supporting public art projects that incorporate architecture, engineering, urban design, landscape, and infrastructure. Among the potential responsibilities will be participating in the design process, producing fabrication and construction documents, and preparing studio RFQs.

Why the role interests us

The open role at Cliff Garten Studio offers us the opportunity to reflect on the relationship between art and architecture; and specifically how spatial artistic works such as sculptures and installations interact with their architectural context. Garten is not alone in bringing this topic to our editorial, with other recent examples including SOM and Janet Echelman’s movement-inspired installation in Munich, Germany, and Eduardo Tresoldi’s wire mesh cathedral in Ravenna, Italy inspired by Dante’s Inferno.

In Garten’s case, the studio’s artistic approach centers on the relationship between civic art and infrastructure. “[Garten] places his sculpture within the everyday as a way to re-imagine how civic infrastructure might perform beyond its basic function,” the studio notes on their Archinect profile. “Garten believes that our infrastructure systems ‘have done a remarkable job of satisfying our needs, but not necessarily our desires.’”

Examples of this philosophy in action include Corridor of Light (2020), where Garten installed a series of twenty-five-foot tall illuminated sculptures on a bridge in Rosslyn, VA, “activating the bridge and producing an urban gateway in [the city].” In 2018, meanwhile, the artist’s Rassambleau project in Philadelphia, PA saw a new public street and pocket park created through an “ensemble of linked sculptures,”where courtyard paving, bronze luminaries, and stormwater management curb swales sought to integrate art into public infrastructure.

Further reading for interested candidates

• Investigating the Relationship Between Public Art and Public Spae with LAA Office (December 2021)
• Private Interests and the Public Good: Could an Office of Public Space Management Fix New York’s Chaotic and Unfriendly Public Realm (August 2021)
• 10 architectural installations & pavilions we liked this week (May 2021)
• Archinect’s ongoing coverage of art installations
• Cliff Garten Studio’s Archinect profile
• Archinect Tips: Employment Edition (November 2020)

Job Highlights is one of a number of ongoing weekly series showcasing the opportunities available on our industry-leading job board. Our Meet Your Next Employer profiles and interviews interesting studios with open positions currently available on Archinect Jobs, while our weekly roundups curate job opportunities by location, career level, and job description.