Client

Overview

ARTIST STATEMENT:
SEARCH MEANS TO LIVE.
SEARCH IS HOW TO LIVE.
LIVING IS A CHAIN REACTION OF CREATIVITY.
SEARCH endeavors to bring positive energy, inspiration and hope to all people who come to the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center; to enlighten the experience of professionals, patients and loved ones and to carry their thoughts up towards the future and hope.
Tower (Dodecagon, 1800 SF, 120 Panels, 24,438 lbs of glass), 82’ high, hand cut handblown antique glass, safety glass, LEDs, steel, granite, brick

Goals

In appreciation of the towering leadership and cutting-edge research of Kenneth Cowan, M.D., PhD , SEARCH is a beacon for the medical campus sited at the highest northwest corner of the UNMC Campus as a beacon to the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center with sight lines as far as half a mile. Evening illumination allows the artwork to parallel the hospital’s vigilant research for medical knowledge and solutions. The shifting paths of color explore every possible direction in a field of monochromatic bands, some of which incorporate 46 pairs of normal and mutated cancer causing chromosome banding patterns.

Process

Collaborating with Derix Glasstudios, and their amazing ability to translate with Jun his design into a perfect balances of front and back lit color and brilliance. The most difficult part of this tower is that it is meant to be viewed both lit by natural daylight and backlit by LED's and most glass has extremely different behaviors in these contrasting lighting conditions. It was great for Jun to work with their master glass artist Karl Heinz Traut with his great inherent eye and ability to work intricately with Jun to realize the overall rhythm that he demands from the design. The structural engineers that Derix sub-contracted were above and beyond in their overall foresight, elegance of design, functionality and maintenance considerations.