Client: John A. Burns School of Medicine
Location: Honolulu, HI, United States
Completion date: 2005
Artwork budget: $635,000
Project Team
Artist
Ed Carpenter
Other
Oanh Tran, Project Manager
Ed Carpenter Studio
Industry Resource
Grant Davis, Engineer
KPFF
Industry Resource
Hawaii Architects, Honolulu, HI
Hawaii Architects, Honolulu, HI
Industry Resource
Glass Strategies
Glass Strategies
Overview
John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, Hawaii. A garden of the mind…a landscape of botanical memories, wildly out of scale, mingling imagery of leaves, hearts, veins in a vast organic world…strange, comforting, protecting. / John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI 2005
Goals
"Dream Leaves” Exterior sculpture, 72' x 143' x 31', Stainless steel, laminated dichroic glass, concrete, flagstone
This commission is an entrance feature for both the new Medical School and adjacent Kakaako Waterfront Park. Its forms are derived from images of taro plants, for centuries at the center of Hawaiian life and mythology, providing sustenance both physically and spiritually. The composition of stem-like poles and enormous abstract leaves undulates around two sides of the school, enveloping the landscape, and re-scaling the architecture. Laminated glass details change color from different angles and cast lacy, moving images on the building and walkways. Students and visitors pass under and through “…a garden of the mind, a landscape of botanical memories, wildly out of scale, mingling imagery of leaves, hearts, veins in a vast organic world—strange, comforting, protecting.”