No more bathrooms. No more floors.

Since I coordinated a contest for a mural in the freshman architecture studio at Georgia Tech in 1976, I have been involved in public art and public space. After 30 years, how did the public art establishment get cornered into public bathrooms and terrazo floors with their limited public art dollars? It's time for public art to be front and center of new spaces and buildings again.

A few years ago at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida, I met artist John Henry. (Lakeland should be on every cultural tourist itinerary for the Frank Lloyd Wright campus at Southern Florida College, the annual Lemon Street sculpture display and the general beauty by which the lakes are integrated with the city.) Henry was joking with a friend about the "no-see-um" art. I always wondered what the "plop art" artists called integrated artworks. "No-see-um" (slang for tiny, blood sucking flies) has not caught on, but it is at least as insulting as "plop".

In my days in Seattle, I worked as hard as any curator or arts administrator to merge art into daily life and to enhance the built stuff. But in Florida I have felt the desire of sincere, creative citizens to SEE the art. They want the art in the front of the building, at the busiest intersection or on the crowded pedestrian plaza. They want the work to be framed with landscaping or architecture.

It is time to add a new method to our systems of commissioning new work. In certain projects, pre-plan the artwork as the visual priority. Imagine the RFQ for the A&E: "Artists will be selected to create works for the project. These artworks will be the main visual focus on any exterior plazas, main façade and/or lobbies. Site planning, architecture, landscape and lighting throughout those areas will be designed to reinforce the priority of the artwork."

Or perhaps the artist is selected before the A&E firm. In addition to the A&E contract, the building program would include the following: " The public art program selected an artist based on past work to design an artwork for a façade, plaza or whatever. The artwork will be the main visual focus on the façade, plaza or whatever. The design of all aspects of that area of the facility will assist in making the artwork the pride of the community."

A value exists regarding the location of the artwork. All the "generals on horses" have the best places in the plan of the city and punctuate the roadway vistas. The fountains in Rome animate the plaza. The Virgin Mary hovers above the alter and on axis with everything in the basilica.

An artwork in a corner may have the advantage of intimate contact, but the location and scale may imply its lack of importance to the institution. A classic example is the glowing mosaic murals by Dixie Friend Gay in the passage between the parking garages at the George Bush Houston airport. $250,000 spent in lonely corridor without any substantial place value. Despite the immense quality of the work, the choice of place demotes the work.

Below are a few modern and postmodern examples of artworks prioritized by the owner and architect. No tricky photography is necessary to make the artwork look important. The building and site want the artwork.

It's simple to know when the priority occurs. Step back to a location where you can see the artwork and building as a normal traveler would approach space. Does your eye go to work? Does some feature interfere with the artwork? If the artwork went away, would the space or building be empty? Would the architect need to design a substitute?

Priority for artwork in the valuable places should only remain one possibility, but one that needs to return to our cities

Church of Saint Francis, Brazil, 1943, Architect Oscar Niemeyer, Artist Cândido Portinari

Bacardi Building, Miami, 1963. Architect Enrique Gutierrez. Artist Francisco Brennand Photo Joe Kunkel
Tour Stratos, Valencia, Venzuela, 1990. Architect Yañez and Láncara. Artist Carlos Cruz-Diez

Chait Day Building, Los Angeles, 1991. Architect Frank Gehry. Artist Claus Oldenburg

To prove I am NOT against floors, here is Carlos Cruz-Diez at the Caracas Airport, 1974. Architect Montemayor and Sully