Client: The City of Palm Desert, CA

Overview

Sunburst is a 25 foot tall abstract stainless steel sculpture for the San Pablo roundabout that pays homage to the Sun. The piece can be interpreted to represent multiple concepts – the Sun, a star, a flower that opens and closes as the viewer circulates around it, or an abstract palm tree that celebrates Palm Desert’s natural beauty.

The sculpture is composed of two sections perpendicular to one another, each facing toward the roundabout’s intersecting roads. The two circular forms interact visually with one another forming a gestalt sphere as drivers negotiate the roundabout.

Goals

The sculpture was specifically designed for the roundabout keeping in mind the dimensions and scale of the space.

Process

The project was overseen by Erica Powell from the City of Palm Desert, who did an amazing and thorough job guiding it through all the twists and turns that inevitably pop up during an undertaking of this scale.

Additional Information

Ethereal is not a word one typically associates with 12,000 pounds of stainless steel. Yet “Sunburst” — Palm Desert’s newest and largest art installation — manages to give that impression despite being composed of heavy metal installed on the roundabout on the newly revitalized San Pablo Avenue at San Gorgonio Way. Gialanella’s was one of two submissions the city was considering, and when put to a public vote, his “Sunburst” design aced the competition. Inspiration for the winning design came during one of his daily mind-clearing walks. “The sun was dappling through the palm tree foliage above me, and I was seeing little stars,” he says. “I got to thinking that would be a perfect design — something akin to a burst of sunlight.” Believing it would suit a desert setting, he got to work. Turning his vision into a reality required more than a few sketches. It took Gialanella several weeks just to perfect the way the rays were going to radiate out from the center of the burst. “And of course, it had to be practical and supportive,” he says, explaining how additional time was spent working with an engineer to ensure the installation would be stable. “Sunburst” took a year and a half to complete.