Client: Scott Hocking

Overview

Floating Citadel is an 11ft. 9000+ lb. globe- like structure made of bronze. Artist Scott Hocking’s idea for it was the development of years of iteration of the design and a public art call for work presented itself as the perfect catapult to make. Making it’s debut August 17th, 2022 outside of Detroit’s Huntington Place with the support of Detroit Regional Convention FAcility Authority (DRFCFA) Art foundation as well as Mayer Mike Duggan.

Goals

Being able to use our unique approaches to creating public work that fits within the artist's budget as well as providing the logistics to create this large piece on time.

Process

When the digital files of the “Floating Citadel” came to us from Scott, we then went through and figured out how to segment the sections to fit our process and budget parameters. We used a combination of waterjet cut elements, sandcasting, and 3D printed wax pieces that were shell cast. Being able to test fit all these sections and elements in a digital model was incredibly helpful for the accuracy of using multiple processes. We also, used 3D modeling to create the armature and base armature of the piece which was fabricated in our shop using those renderings.