Student contest winners to design portal adornments

Henry Meyers was a prominent Bay Area architect in the mid-1930s when he designed the bas relief medallions adorning the entrances of the Caldecott Tunnel's two original bores.

Later this year, an as-yet-unchosen student -- a kindergartner, a high school senior, or someone in between -- will design the medallions for the $391 million fourth bore under construction on Highway 24 between Oakland and Orinda.

Caltrans will hold a competition limited to students from Contra Costa and Alameda counties to submit the design for six artistic medallions to be cast in concrete above the tunnel opening, the state highway agency announced.

The six new hexagon-shaped medallions -- each about 36 inches high -- will be public art for the ages.

Caltrans two years ago was considering opening the contest to professional artists and architects, but opted instead for young, homegrown talent.

"We wanted to engage the two communities on both sides of the tunnel," said Jeanne Gorham, the landscape architect for Caltrans District 4. "It's a way to give them a sense of ownership of the project, due to open in late 2013."

Each public or private school in the East Bay will be eligible to submit up to three students' design proposals for the competition judged by Caltrans, said Ivy Morrison, a Caltrans spokeswoman. The designs will be used to produce molds for casting the concrete images in place.

The contest will open in a few weeks. Before then, Caltrans is conducting an online survey asking the public to rank six potential themes for the medallions.

Options for themes include images of transportation, technology, current East Bay places, plants or images, the future or the art-deco style that Meyers used for the tunnel, which opened in 1937.

Meyers, the official Alameda County architect in the 1930s, and perhaps others came up with the artistic images under which 160,000 vehicles drive each weekday. One depicts people facing each other to symbolize how the tunnel joins the residents of Contra Costa and Alameda counties; another shows a car headlight exiting a tunnel.

While the images are somewhat difficult for motorists to take in as they drive by, the medallions give an artistic and historical feel to the tunnel, says a 1995 Caltrans report.

"The Art Deco images in each of the four medallions are somewhat abstract but appear to trace the history of the tunnel," the report says.

Meyers may have had a lot of help from draftsman George Klinkhardt in designing the tunnel exterior and medallions, a Caltrans report suggests. In fact, Klinkhardt may have designed the entire tunnel exterior, the reports says.

Still, Meyers had responsibility over the entire project design as chief architect.

Meyers, who grew up in Livermore and whose Alameda home has been turned into a museum, designed more than 200 buildings, including Highland Hospital in Oakland, the Posey Tube in Alameda and 10 veterans memorial buildings, including the ones in Livermore and Pleasanton.

Orinda City Councilwoman Amy Worth said she is enthusiastic about using student designers.

"I think our talented youth can produce fresh ideas," said Worth, who serves on a Contra Costa County transportation commission that contributed $122 million of county sales tax toward the project.