



Client: Public Art on Campus/Weisman Art Museum
Location: Minneapolis, MN, United States
Completion date: 2010
Artwork budget: $325,000
Project Team
Artist
Alexander Tylevich
Tylevich Studio
Industry Resource
Peters Studio
Architect
KPF Architects
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.’