Client: Public Art on Campus/Weisman Art Museum

Overview

This five-story (80-ft. tall) suspended sculpture is seamlessly integrated into the interior of the new University of Minnesota Science Teaching Center. The sculpture animates the space within the cantilevered main stairway, forming a visual and social centerpiece.

Goals

Two cable-formed cones reach toward each other. The upper cone is composed of 16 stainless steel cables. This cone of cables supports a spiral made of vivid dichroic glass. The spiral unravels above the third floor, untangling into codependent strips of dichroic glass, which follow the curves of the stairway and atrium-floor openings. The ephemeral, one-of-a-kind 40’-long spiral revolves in the direction opposite to that of the main stairwell.

Process

In the words of Bill Pedersen, design principal of KPF Architects, this sculpture is ‘the most successful integration of art and architecture that I have been associated with over my career.’