Duckbill racks are indeed manufactured by and at the UW. The city asked the UW Engineering Dept to come up with an inexpensive and functional rack. The UW uses these almost exclusively, and you will still see some on city streets, but it looks like the city discovered that they get run over and bent, so may need replacement more often than sturdier (and more visible) racks such as the Dero Campus Rack, which is the default on State St now.
The UW apparently has no desire to manufacture, market, and sell these racks, so you will only see them on the public right of way of Madison and the UW campus. They are not available for sale to the public. With regard to the art racks, I love them. And the Overture Center should have considered some of them when they stuck their nose up at having racks in front of their building. They fought like hell to not have anything as lowly as bike racks to serve their customers, saying it would mar the look of the block. Of course, no one who goes to Overture would ride a bike, which is why bikes were stacked five deep against the building on the night Overture opened. Under city code, Overture should have provided 150 bike parking spots, but they provided zero, and weren't happy when we forced the city to put in a few racks visible from the corner of Fairchild and State. But I digress But keep in mind that the original question was about a landlord that was so cheap that he wanted the city to provide the racks, or at least he wanted to buy them from the city. Somehow, I don't think this landlord would spring for the art rack upgrade.
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