Art plan for Napa Pipe emerges. Costco remains part of plan.

You can add one more thing to the list: public art.

New documents filed with the city of Napa detail the kind of art, and where locals might expect to see it. An updated map of the entire Napa Pipe project was also submitted.

“The art at Napa Pipe will capture, elevate, and celebrate the site’s industrial legacy, its relationship to the natural environment, and invite reflection on how its people and history impact us today,” read the project application, titled the Napa Pipe Art Plan.

The 154-acre development is located at the old Napa Pipe industrial site along the Napa River at 1025 Kaiser Road, about a quarter-mile north of the Butler Bridge on Highway 12/29. It is owned by Napa Redevelopment Partners. A company called Catellus, based in Oakland, is the development manager for the project.

Members of Napa Redevelopment Partners and Catellus declined to comment this week about their plans for the art. 

However, according to the application, the public art will dot an estimated 11 “priority” sites at the site. Budgets for the artwork could range from $25,000 to more than $350,000.

One thing most visitors notice about Napa Pipe is the five-story-high rusted steel seawall crane on the banks of the Napa River.

This crane once moved pipes, 40 feet in diameter, from an adjacent pipe mill onto docked ships for transport to San Francisco and beyond, noted the application.

Napa Pipe shut down operations in 2004 after 63 years of steel manufacturing and 80 years of on-site heavy industry. Originally founded as a sand and gravel production facility for the Basalt Rock Co. in 1924, the site became through generations of operations and multiple owners the largest private employer in the community “and a symbol of American innovation and industry,” said the application. 

The project space is vast with many sites and opportunities for art, the application states. Priority sites in public places include along the river, in the parks, plazas and drydocks, and at the major community entrance, now named Clear Stream Avenue and Horseshoe Bend Drive.

Besides the art plan, an updated Napa Pipe map was included as part of the program. That map now includes a number of those brand-new street names and the locations of future artworks. It even shows where the long-awaited Costco store will be built.

According to the application, the central park and railroad corridor is the highest-priority site for public art.

Other art sites include a waterfront park, drydock plaza, wetland walking paths, and connections to the Bay Trail and Vine Trail.

In addition to the monumental equipment and the drydocks that will remain on site, dozens of artifacts that were once part of the Kaiser Steel operation have been salvaged, and are meant to be saved and integrated into artworks and design elements throughout the project. Fire hose reels, I-beams, gantry tracks and rollers, gear drives, giant self-rusting Cor-Ten steel half-cylinders, and concrete and steel columns are just a few of the items available.

These items can be integrated into benches, tree grates, railings and fencing, or embedded in sidewalks, and used for wayfinding and signage, the application suggested.

“There is a beauty in their patina which shows evidence of the equipment’s age and how it has evolved over time,” it read. 

Integrating a range and depth of ideas, concepts and approaches to the Napa Pipe project is critical in rolling out this plan, said the application.

The artworks commissioned through the plan should be instrumental in defining and creating the Napa Pipe community, said the application, which states: “Artists should be challenged to dive deeply and perhaps rethink how this site will be remembered.”

The plan recommends processes to ensure “a range of disciplines and voices” by artists representing the diverse population.

To accomplish this, “it is important that artists of different backgrounds and ethnicities who live in the region, as well as other parts of the country and world, should be considered for each project,” it read. “Outsiders should be welcomed.”

According to the application, this project could be fully funded with the initial pooled contributions from Napa Redevelopment Partners commercial property builders.

The city’s public art ordinance requires commercial developers to either dedicate 1% of construction costs to on-site public art or pay that 1% into a public art fund.

Those contributions may be large enough to fund priority site number two — Crane Way — as well, said the application.

Napa Redevelopment Partners plans to oversee the implementation of the Napa Pipe Art Plan on behalf of all development partners, said the application. The art plan will be funded and carried out through revenues contributed from three primary sources:

First, pooled contributions from Napa Redevelopment Partners commercial property builders.

Second, partnership projects with community organizations and individuals.

Third, naming opportunities for individual art sites and projects by business and corporate sponsors.

There will be opportunities to engage the community as the project is developed and after it is completed, the application noted.

A number of organizations have been identified initially as potential community partners for joint projects. They include the city of Napa Public Art Steering Committee, Napa Valley Vine Trail, Rail Arts District Napa, Friends of the Napa River, Napa County Historical Society, Napa Valley College welding technology and studio arts programs, Oxbow School, Nimbus Arts, and potential residential homeowner associations.

The developer anticipates that this project will include a variety of works crafted from a variety of materials and of various scales.

Three main budget categories are proposed. For large-scale permanent artworks, $350,000 and up, and for other permanent artworks, $100,000 to $350,000. For temporary works, the budget range is $25,000 to $100,000.

The plan noted that on average it can take one to four years for the selection, fabrication and installation of an artwork.