Grand Opening of Ogden’s New Dumke Arts Plaza
From an empty lot to a dynamic outdoor gallery and performance space, the Dumke Arts Plaza is an innovative civic space uniting the community around art
A new, flexible arts plaza lays the foundation for the city’s vibrant Arts District
Dumke Arts Plaza
In March 2020, The City of Ogden hired Sasaki in partnership with local firms Io LandArch and Union Creative Agency to lead the vision and design of the Nine Rails Creative District’s public realm. Born from this design and completed in 2022 is the Dumke Arts Plaza – a new cornerstone for the city’s vibrant Arts District.
The new public realm will serve as the centerpiece of the creative district located in downtown Ogden and further transform a once abandoned section of 25th Street. At the heart of the district, Dumke Arts Plaza serves as a gateway between the downtown and the east-central neighborhood while introducing a new main attraction for the Nine Rails Creative District.
The plaza is sited on a corner within the city’s emerging Nine Rails Arts District, just blocks from the historic 25th street
Just blocks from the historic 25th Street and its surrounding shops, galleries, and restaurants, Dumke Arts Plaza offers a cultural destination for the region’s thriving art scene while boasting spectacular views of the nearby Wasatch Mountain Range. To maximize the flexibility of art on the site, the design team created an art infrastructure system that could host performances and static art in a variety of capacities. A myriad spatial conditions were layered into a relatively small space, allowing individuals and groups to select their own experience.
The plaza provides an arts-focused community space, dynamic outdoor gallery, and an intimate performance venue. Designed to inspire creativity, the plaza elevates diverse perspectives and anchors Ogden as a hub for contemporary art and expression. The space features major art installations and community-led arts programming ranging from small concerts to dance performances to video art. It engages with art in all its forms, but is also a place for daily gatherings and small moments of respite.
Innovating tech for Plaza design and programming
The design process for the quarter-acre Dumke Arts Plaza began with an elemental look at the larger geography and geology of the Salt Lake Basin. Working with Sasaki’s in-house Data & Design Tools, the team built a custom quantitative viewshed analysis tool to study the potential of creating beautiful views of the iconic Wasatch Mountain Range across the site. Sasaki’s Data & Design team used a variety of tools to conduct this analysis, quickly importing over 150km2 of topographic maps and modeling the downtown core from GIS data in order to build out the surrounding context. This analysis informed the function of the plaza while the deep dive into the region’s common geologic formations inspired the three-dimensional forms of the space.
The team modeled how views of the mountain would improve on higher platforms for users to stand on
The complimentary colors and playful textures of the entry signage speak to the materiality and movement throughout the space
The plaza overhang invites visitors into an immersive space featuring a perforated, back-lit ceiling
In the overhang, visitors can appreciate the many forms of art the plaza has to offer
The complimentary colors and playful textures of the entry signage speak to the materiality and movement throughout the space
The plaza overhang invites visitors into an immersive space featuring a perforated, back-lit ceiling
In the overhang, visitors can appreciate the many forms of art the plaza has to offer
The ramp up to the plinth invites visitors into the space to enjoy the rotations of art installations and surrounding views
The plaza represents a partnership of landscape and architecture, as an elevated plinth guides visitors up to higher views of the Wasatch mountains while providing coverage over a video art screen, structural support for large sculptures, and electrical support for performances. Native plants were selected to connect the plaza to its wider surroundings, reduce required maintenance, and bring a sense of wildness to the site. Trees provide shade over misters, recalling the foggy Wasatch forests, while tall grasses obscure sculpture pads, allowing the art to appear as if spawning from the earth.
A flexible art infrastructure system allows for both performances and static art in a variety of configurations. Since opening, the plaza has hosted multiple music and dance performances, video art, and sculptural installations.
“The Dumke Arts Plaza represents mobility for Ogden as it eliminates the barriers inherently associated with traditional ‘white cube’ art galleries and museums that sometimes deter the masses from experiencing meaningful, thought-provoking art.”
Lydia Gravis, Director of Art Exhibitions and Public Programs at Weber State University’s Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw Gallery
The Beacon
The Beacon — emerging from the northeastern corner of the plaza — is designed to be seen from afar, beckoning people to the arts district to experience the plaza up close. Folding up from the plaza to frame the northeast entry, the sculpture takes cues from the forms and materiality of the plaza itself. Suspended from this frame, a cantilever magically floats 40 feet over the street, and is visible from all over Ogden. At night, the Beacon glows from within, illuminating a perforation pattern inspired by the Wasatch Mountain Range, and developed by local collaborators Union Creative.
The beacon sculpture takes cues from the form and materials of the plaza design
Local Collaborators and Community Engagement
Sasaki and partners Union Creative found new, creative ways to work with the client and stakeholders that yielded significant community input, and ultimately developed a design for the Dumke Arts Plaza that meets multiple needs. From low-tech pop-up engagement to online surveys, the design team reached thousands of people in Ogden. The campaign recognized that in order for the project to be a true success, the plaza design must represent the Nine Rails Creative District and the larger Ogden community in the most equitable way possible.
“Thank you for your willingness to color outside of the lines when we gave you the impossible task of designing a one-of-a-kind, groundbreaking civic space.”
Lorie Buckley, Arts Coordinator at Ogden City Arts, Culture, and Events
For more information contact Anna Cawrse.
