2012 events will 'move' you

Festivals…races…and… concerts – oh my! The City of Suwanee's 2012 events calendar offers an entertaining harmony of sights and sounds.

Event attendees will see a locally produced Broadway show, artists at work, and cultural displays and performances. They also will hear ekes and screams at October's Terror on the Trail, barks during Star 94's Woofstock event in May, and cheers when the Atlanta Braves present a Game on the Green, also in May.

In all, Suwanee will host about 35 City-sponsored and privately presented events in 2012.

"We hope to move you, shake you, and get you up on your feet dancing," says Events Manager Amy Doherty. "We try to create a wide variety of event options so that citizens of all ages have a chance to come make a memory. It's like enjoying a little vacation in your own backyard."

Many of Suwanee's most popular events – including the Suwanee Beer Festival, Arts in the Park, Great American Campout, Taste of Suwanee, Korean Festival, and, of course, Suwanee Day – are returning as are several events that have more than one date, including the Farmers Market, Art on a Limb, and Terror on the Trail. New this year is Suwanee's Super Incredible Race, a team scavenger hunt around town that also will require participants to use their thinking caps.

Mayor Jimmy Burnette, second from left, was among those accepting Trendsetter awards on behalf of their communities.

Public art a (two-time) winner in Suwanee

The City of Suwanee was recognized twice in January for its public arts initiative, and particularly for its inaugural Suwanee SculpTour exhibit. On January 22, Suwanee was one of six Georgia cities recognized as a Trendsetter by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and Georgia Trend magazine. The next day, the City was awarded a Community Impact – Community Arts Program Award from ArtWorks! Gwinnett.

The Trendsetter Award was presented during GMA's annual Mayors' Day Conference in Atlanta. Suwanee was recognized for bringing together public art and the community in public spaces as part of its economic development efforts. Suwanee was a co-winner, along with the Gwinnett County Public Library, of the Community Impact – Community Arts Program Award, presented by ArtWorks! Gwinnett.

"The selection committee looked at the community impact of programs [last year]" says Sally Corbett, executive director of ArtWorks! Gwinnett. "It was clear that Suwanee SculpTour was the most ambitious and bold public art project during that time frame and needed to be recognized. SculpTour was well-organized and extremely well-received by citizens of Suwanee and from throughout Gwinnett. It provides a new tourism destination and gives working artists an opportunity for exposure."

The City of Suwanee is committed to utilizing public art as an economic development tool to attract visitors, residents, and businesses to Suwanee; a means to enhance downtown Suwanee and citizens' quality of life; and a way to create a unique sense of identity for the community.

Let Suwanee Day be your muse

Suwanee Day + your creativity could = $500 cash!

The Suwanee Day festival is bringing back its popular logo design competition. This year's winning design will serve as the official logo for the 2012 "celebration of community" and will be imprinted on festival t-shirts and promotional materials; the winning artist will receive $500 cash. Submissions will be accepted through May 31.

Digitally created designs as well as original artwork – including paintings, drawings, and photographs – will be accepted. Completed applications must accompany submissions, which should be printed and mounted on foam board. Digital copies of the submissions, in jpeg or pdf formats, also are requested. Click here for guidelines and application.

Designs may incorporate any, all, or none of the following:

• Suwanee Day 2012
• September 15, 2012
• Town Center Park
• A Celebration of Community

Last year, approximately 55,000 attended the Suwanee Day festival at Town Center Park. This year's celebration will be September 15. Find more information about the annual Suwanee Day festival at www.suwaneeday.com.

Photo by Richard Calmes

Suwanee seeks artwork for 2012 SculpTour

WANTED: Sculptures and other artwork that can stand the heat and weather the cold of an outdoor exhibit from May 2012-March 2013. Creativity is a must, and non-conformists are welcome. SculpTour is an equal opportunity exhibit and does not discriminate based on size, material, or style.

The City of Suwanee has issued a request for proposals from artists and teams of artists interested in having their work exhibited in the 2012 Suwanee SculpTour. An outdoor exhibit of sculptures on loan from artists, SculpTour is designed to be a walkable, interactive public art encounter. The inaugural 2011 SculpTour, which concludes at the end of March, includes 15 sculptures in and around downtown Suwanee.

Selected artists receive a stipend, and the sculpture voted the "People's Choice" at the end of the exhibit will be purchased and added to Suwanee's permanent public art collection. The deadline for submissions is February 17.

The 2011 SculpTour includes technology-enhanced features that help make the exhibit more interactive. Visitors and residents may vote for their favorite sculpture. In addition, Suwanee created an audio guided tour/podcast that may be downloaded via iTunes;  simply search "Suwanee SculpTour" on iTunes.

Suwanee SculpTour is funded entirely by corporate and private sponsors.

Farmers wanted

The City of Suwanee Farmers Market will open at Town Center on May 1. Again this year, the market will be open twice each week, from 4-7 p.m. Tuesdays through August 7 and from 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays through October 6 (with the exception of September 15).

Applications for vendor space at the Farmers Market are now available. The market is limited to farmers and gardeners who actually grow the food they sell and to makers of salsa, sauces, jelly, bread, baked goods, and other natural products. Arts and craft items are not accepted. This year, the City will require that homemade items be cooked in a commercial kitchen (i.e., shared kitchen) that is inspected by the health department.

About 25 booth spaces are available at each market. The cost for booth space depends on how frequently a vendor attends the market.

Applications must be turned in at the annual meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, March 26, at City Hall. Applications may not be mailed or dropped off. For more information, contact Events Manager Amy Doherty or 770/945-8996.

This photo by Richard Calmes is what you'll see when you go to download the Suwanee SculpTour podcast on iTunes.

Audio tour guides Annette Phelps and Dick Goodman.

SculpTour podcast now available on iTunes

A guided audio tour/podcast of the Suwanee SculpTour exhibit is now available for download on iTunes. The approximately 32-minute podcast – which provides information about the 15 sculptures in the exhibit and some of the City's permanent public art pieces as well as insights from participating artists – is designed to be listened to while walking through the exhibit. With pauses, the guided tour will take approximately an hour to complete.

City Councilmember and Public Arts Commission Chair Dick Goodman and City of Suwanee Receptionist Annette Phelps serve as tour guides, providing directions and light-hearted commentary. Most of the participating artists offer information about their sculpture and the creative process.

To download the podcast, visit iTunes and search "Suwanee SculpTour." Click on the "Guide to 2011 Suwanee SculpTour" link to download. The audio tour also may be downloaded here.

The 2011 Suwanee SculpTour, which opened last May, will run through the end of March. The exhibit includes 15 sculptures of varying sizes, styles, and materials in and around downtown Suwanee. The exhibit is funded entirely through corporate and private donations; 2011 sponsors include Georgia Natural Gas, the Law Offices of Richard Yoon, Peoples Bank & Trust, Gwinnett Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Ippolito's Italian Restaurant. The "Guide to 2011 Suwanee SculpTour" podcast was made possible through a grant from the Gwinnett Convention and Visitors Bureau. Remember to vote for your favorite sculpture.

Click on the image to enlarge a picture.

City receives grant to reconstruct Buford Highway
as context-sensitive, multimodal roadway

The City of Suwanee will implement a nearly $3.3 million Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) grant, received through the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), to reconstruct a portion of Buford Highway as a context-sensitive roadway that will safely accommodate multiple modes of transportation and help connect residents and visitors to a variety of activity centers.

Rather than simply widening Buford Highway, as many communities seem interested in doing, Suwanee's plans call for the thoroughfare to remain a two-lane road with the addition of sidewalks, multiuse trails, landscaped medians, additional streetscaping, operational improvements such as turn lanes, and a potential roundabout in order to accommodate additional modes of transportation, calm existing traffic, encourage Town Center-like development, and provide safer pedestrian access.

"We're not rebuilding the entire roadway itself," says Planning Division Director Matthew Dickison. "Rather, we're adding elements that will make Buford Highway context-sensitive to its surrounding areas and help facilitate quality future development. This project is a key element in the City's commitment to connecting different parts of downtown."

The City's initial step will be to conduct a scoping study that will provide more detailed estimates related to the project's feasibility, cost, and timeline. That study will be initiated by February. Construction is anticipated to begin sometime in 2013 with completion expected about two years later. More information.

Construction of police substation set to get underway

Suwanee City Council has approved a contract with Hogan Construction Group of Norcross for construction of a new 7,100-square-foot police substation and training facility at 2996 Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road in the Suwanee Gateway area. Work is expected to begin on the substation by the end of December or early January.

Construction was approved at a maximum cost of a little more than $1.6 million; the anticipated total project cost is approximately $1.99 million. The project is funded primarily through SPLOST funds.

Designed by Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates, the facility will provide an enhanced police presence in the Suwanee Gateway and provide class space for regional police training and indoor firearms practice. A one-story facility, the building features clean lines in brick and a lofty, glazed entrance.

"Placing a police substation in the heavily commercial, heavily traveled Suwanee Gateway area serves several purposes," says City Manager Marty Allen. "Most importantly, it serves an operational need to provide ongoing training opportunities for our police personnel, reducing the need for them to travel to other jurisdictions for such training."

Construction is expected to require approximately eight months.

DDA sells Pierce's Corner

Suwanee's Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has sold one of the oldest commercial buildings along Main Street to a business focused on constructing, remodeling, and retrofitting buildings using green practices in order to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.

Deming LLC has acquired a 50-year lease-purchase on the approximately 6,000-square-foot, two-story Pierce's Corner building, which was constructed in 1910. Late last year, the DDA issued a request for proposals for Pierce's Corner that would serve as a catalyst for future growth and vitality in historic Old Town. The Deming proposal was one of 11 received earlier this year through that process.

Deming has agreed to a lease-to-purchase price of $258,640, financed through a 3.5 percent interest rate paid in monthly installments of $1,161.41 (beginning in year three of the agreement). Deming has the right to purchase the building within the first 22 years of the agreement.

"We sought a unique proposition that would spur creative ideas and ultimately enhance the economic viability of Old Town and the City as a whole," notes Downtown and Business Development Manager Alison Starnes. "The Deming proposal certainly fits that bill, and we're very excited to welcome this green-focused business to Pierce's Corner."

As part of its three-phase plan, Deming will first remodel the main Pierce's Corner building. Design for renovations is anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2012 and will include techniques designed to achieve LEED certification. More information.

Photo by David Douglas

Greenway section closed for 'makeover'

The oldest section of the Suwanee Creek Greenway, from Martin Farm Road to Suwanee Elementary School, will be closed in two phases over a seven-month or more period so that the City of Suwanee, through its contractor Georgia Development Partners, can rehabilitate and upgrade the approximately one-mile section of multiuse trail. 

Work has already begun on the first phase, from the Town Center connector at Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road to Martin Farm Road. Work on this phase will require 3-4 months, depending on weather conditions. When work on the first section is complete, rehabilitation will begin on the second phase, from the Town Center connector/ Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road to Suwanee Elementary, and that section also will be closed for 3-4 months, again depending on the weather.

With the possible exception of a few days between phases, the City plans to keep access to the Greenway open from the Town Center connector in one direction or the other.

This older section of Suwanee's popular, four-mile multiuse path was installed in the 1990s. Existing asphalt and boardwalk will be demolished, and new concrete and boardwalk will be installed at widths that match the newer sections of the Greenway. In addition, changes are being made to minimize as much as possible the impact of flooding along this section. For example, where possible, the trail will be moved to higher ground (6-18 inches higher) so that floodwaters will recede from the trail surface first.