Repeated permutations of surface openings made slits of light, causing dramatic contrasts of light and shadow. To make the transition from small, table top places to actual real ones in the environment was a thrilling evolution.
I think of what I do as creating places. My sources lie in architecture and landscape architecture, in graphics and design, in mathematics, cinema and theater. I look for connections; spatial, visual, historical, environmental, and architectural. I believe in the dramatic potential of the site and seek to heighten it so that encountering one of my places invites participation, a reason to stop, investigate, and absorb.
The Light Tower
Towers host an extraordinary range of identities, mostly real, some imaginary. To me as a child they were fairy tale places like castles and dungeons that I read about in books but never saw. I imagined them with a single room way at the top, sometimes a sanctuary, sometimes a prison. Later I learned about other kinds of towers.
There are memorial towers and towers that mark a place. There are religious towers and civic towers, water towers and cooling towers, bell towers and lookout towers, broadcast towers and aircraft control towers. There are towers that are observatories, chimneys, granaries, oil derricks, lighthouses, windmills and beacons.
There are towers that are destinations for travelers like the ancient stone towers in Ireland whose significance is unknown. There are remnants like the thirteen towers of San Gimignano built as fortresses by local families whose rivalry extended to the tower design. There are pigeon towers in Iran that collect droppings for fertilizer and when full the towers are smashed and their contents put to use.
There is the leaning tower at Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, the towers of Watts, Rapunzel’s tower, the Washington Monument, the Tower of Babel, and Cleopatra’s Needle. The history and variety is fascinating, and what a great time I had reading about them.
Sited at Alumni Circle, the Light Tower in form, material and intent is influenced by the concept of commemoration, a beacon in celebration of the university centennial. Rising to a height of 60 feet, it is constructed of decreasing lengths of stacked granite with glass windows set into the stone and a glass top. The fiber optic lighting system illuminates the glass, offering an infinite range of glowing colors. The system can be programmed to choose colors that acknowledge seasons, holidays, special events.
The stone colors are Radiant Red and Cold Spring Black with a thermal finish, a surface rougher than either honed or polished. The color pattern varies, so that each side is a little different.
The tower is a monument commemorating the University Centennial, a beacon in honor of learning, a marker locating Alumni Circle, a place for people to meet, and a tribute to its unique site. It will wear different skins in different season. Its surface will change with the sun’s movement. And its interior will emit light in a wonderful range of colors.
Dimensions
Height: 60'-0"
Base: 10'-0" x 10'-0"
Top: 2'-6" x 2'-6"
As the tower ascends the rows decrease 3/8" inch on each side
Stone Section
Height: 44'-0"
Glass Section
Height: 16'-0"
Materials
Concrete foundation
Fiber optic lighting
Glass
Granite
Cold Spring Black
Radiant Red
Granite Dimensions
Stones are 6" high and 2" thick
Maximum length is 5'-6"
Consultants and Suppliers
Advanced Masonry Technology
William Bialosky, Architect
Cold Spring Granite
Robert S. Halper, Lighting
Whiting-Turner Contracting Company
Model Maker
Russell Busch |
