Team Laminates, Co. and the Children’s Museum are requesting proposals to install public art and a garden in this lot at the corner of Vinial Street and Spring Garden Avenue. (Photo courtesy Children’s Museum)

The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh along with Team Laminates is accepting proposals to beautify an asphalt lot in East Deutschtown.

The project will bring public art and raised garden beds to the Team Laminate-owned space at the corner of Vinial Street and Spring Garden Avenue.

The triangular lot measures approximately 30 by 40 feet and is partially enclosed by two masonry walls. Kimberly Bracken, Children’s Museum youth programs coordinator who will be managing the project, said they would like to see public art hung on the walls.

The asphalt surface will remain and garden beds must be built on top of it.

Bracken said Team Laminates approached the museum about doing something with its empty lot and the idea to combine public art and environmental programs came out of that. The project is funded by grants from the Alcoa Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts,

In addition to $5,000, the winning developer will have access to donated materials and labor from Team Laminates, Artcraft Wood Products and Cully Glass Corp., all of which are located in East Deutschtown.

“I think that’s really rare,” Bracken said of the collaboration between businesses. “I don’t hear of a lot of projects like that.”

The winning proposal will be innovative and original, create an educational garden space and be realistic, achievable and able to be maintained by community volunteers, according to the request for proposals.

The Children’s Museum welcomes student and professional architects, designers, artists, gardeners, builders and landscape architects to submit proposals.

An informational Q and A session on the project will be held Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Madison Avenue Meeting House, formerly the Immanuel Methodist Church, at 1000 Madison Avenue in East Deutschtown.

Project proposals will be accepted until 5 p.m. on Feb. 11.

For more information or to request an application, email Kimberly Bracken at [email protected]