Client: Cousins Properties, Inc.

Overview

This monumental suspended sculpture emphasizes how we navigate the world individually and collectively. AEON – referring to a timeless or eternal duration – captures one moment of flux within personal and universal interactions as spatial experience.
The two-story, permanent sculpture connects ground and subterranean level lobbies, utilizing 12,000 ceramic spheres and 17 miles of stainless steel cable within a 6’L x 11’W x 36’H footprint. The project began through a complex virtual design process subsequently implemented through hand-made production. The fabrication team worked from a perspective of singular elements that were only cumulatively comprehended at installation completion.

Goals

The commissioning client, Cousins Properties, maintains a dedicated vision of the role of artwork as an integral part of creating inspiring experiences in the built environment. Art was a central theme of the redevelopment design to be carried throughout 3 Greenway Plaza. Within the ground level and subterranean level lobbies, the unique physical dynamics of the two-story alcove were a focal area where art could elevate the visitor experience and reflect an innovative spirit in the workplace.

AEON articulates mobile pathways bringing to presence a fluid, multilayered visual experience, where interactions between light and form respond to transitory movements, revealing themselves at different proximities and paces. The site-specific commission was essential to the design goals of transforming the dimly lighted entry sequences into a bright, inviting space.

Process

Initiated at the design phase, management at Cousins Properties articulated a clear vision and ambitious framework for the goals of the redevelopment project that were shared by all team members. Vital to the project's success, the artist design process was a seamless collaboration between the art consultant, architects, engineers and construction management. Over a one-year period of time, each contributed expertise to respond to the finessed challenges of the existing structures and the customized implementation and installation strategies designed to achieve the monumental sculpture. Throughout phased coordination between fabrication and construction timelines, the artist and team leaders supported each other by maintaining great communication and a dedication to the overall project vision. Collaboration and an integrated process were the keys to the success of this project from each stakeholder’s perspective.

Additional Information

We increasingly find ourselves in liminal spaces, and to our expansively connected and mobile society, these transitional spaces underscore this condition. Through AEON, the project's in-between space becomes a reflexive infrastructure fostering new dialects of shared experience.