  Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7371 Registered: 12-2003 |
Does anyone know the back story regarding the installation of this piece?! I heard they had troubles during or after the installation, and am very curious about it. | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 1758 Registered: 10-2003 |
For those unfamiliar with this sculpture... http://www.haranglass.com/bore alis.html and... http://www.via-verlag.com/1354 .0.html?&L=&L=1 I've taken the GM Renaissance Center tour 3 times; while the guides spend a few minutes providing the details of this sculptural installation, I don't recall anything about problems encountered with the installation per se. IIRC, there was mention that the first half of the installation took more time, but because of what they learned during that process, the second half was much more efficient. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7373 Registered: 12-2003 |
Thanks Kathleen, for those links, I had one to the artist's official site, but it never made it into the post. So only half was installed when the event occurred. I didn't expect that...although it could fit into my postulate. I'm really curious why this hasn't been reported...more as we hear tomorrow from those who work in and around the building. I'd like to know the dates of the first half of the installation...especially exactly when it paused for the event that forced that lesson...and what they 'learned' during that process. I'm pretty sure I know...but I'm not playing my hand just yet. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3372 Registered: 10-2003 |
Thanks for pointing that out. I will get by to see it. ...and the glass makers are from, where else?, Glasgow. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7375 Registered: 12-2003 |
Thought that was cute. Their website kicks ass, too. They've done some other amazing projects. This sculpture is really a considerable piece of work, I think each piece of glass is an inch by three and something like 40 feet tall! There are hundreds of them, pressed together in a wavy upright laminate. It really is a good analogy of the Aurora Borealis, from what I saw a few falls ago. | ||
Mauser765 Member Username: Mauser765 Post Number: 1300 Registered: 01-2004 |
Go look more closely at the piece - around the hardware that secures the slabs of glass. Looks to me not only was it trouble going up, but it will be quite a bit of trouble to repair in the future. | ||
Keystone Member Username: Keystone Post Number: 234 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yes there were challenges in the original installation. The 3-D geometry made prefabrication of clips, connectors, etc very difficult,and when it came time to put the pieces into place, the glass 'warped' in a way that wasn't expected. It was found that you couldn't compress each piece against the other tight enough to get the shape within the tolerances of the structural clips. Ultimately, the thing had to be taken apart and started over. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7381 Registered: 12-2003 |
Anyone ever see a bunch of glass on the floor one day?! Or was the area completely cordoned off from view during the installation? | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 39 Registered: 08-2006 |
Amazingly, on our trip to Detroit we came across the Corvette Parade. When I went inside, I saw all the glass but I was only inside the building for about 45 secs. since I was parked in the parade route in front of RenCen. So. checked the photos and here is one of the Borealis. I keep learning things on this site! Thanks everyone! | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 40 Registered: 08-2006 |
Will try that again, The image did not make it the first time...  | ||
Beadgrl Member Username: Beadgrl Post Number: 70 Registered: 07-2006 |
Wow is that gorgeous. I haven't been by or in the RenCen in a while. Just the weekend, we drove past it and boy what a change! The concrete wall is gone and replaced with flowers and trees. Very nice! | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 1519 Registered: 06-2004 |
Gannon, seems like I remember hearing about that at the time but I can't find anything in the newspapers's archives | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7386 Registered: 12-2003 |
This is an image from Haran Glass's project brochure. It shows the perspective I hoped to see, I haven't been able to get back down to take pictures myself. I'm sure I couldn't duplicate this lighting...or lack of humans! It sure is beautiful...but moreso when you can see it morph as you and others walk by.  | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7387 Registered: 12-2003 |
From this perspective, you can see that the whole lobby is a perfect horn...a wave guide. Pretty dramatic one, at that. Go GM! I understand the first half dissolved into a million pieces. No news, no coverage. Wonder if it is still in insurance dispute?! Any of our court lurkers able to search out Danny Lane, Skidmore Owings & Merril Design, Anthony Smith Arup, Haran Glass, Christie Glass, Hines, or Skanska to see if there is a ping-pong battle over the responsibility for the loss?! I really, really wish I had access to a Lexus/Nexus hub... | ||
Keystone Member Username: Keystone Post Number: 235 Registered: 10-2003 |
Gannon, from your 'understanding', sounds like you have information to share? I have some knowledge of the installation of the sculpture. As I said previously, there was an issue with the deflection of the glass during installation. Each piece had to lie flat against it's neighbor, with ZERO space between. After all pieces were to be installed, the end 'cap' kept the whole thing together. It was found that the minor deflection of the glass made the 'zero' space impossible to maintain. The end result was the clips at the top got out of alignment. All was taken down, clips remade, installation rethought, some glass refabricated, etc. No lawsuits or broken glass that I'm aware of.. but stranger things have happened. If you really want the nuts and bolts description of the installation process, I can get that for you and post it here. Not sure it's of much interest to the group at large. | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 41 Registered: 08-2006 |
I know this is not the Borealis, but is there a name for this tunnel with light and music show at the airport? They were very pretty and quite a surprise. Makes a long walk seem short...  | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7400 Registered: 12-2003 |
Peach, That light show makes you feel better because it is green and blue! Two of the most relaxing colors in nature...ever wonder why the backstage in the theater is called the Green Room?! Heh. Great picture...wonder what other 'art' works to calm the human machine. Borealis sure does, I'm going down there for lunch today, just to hang around and see what happens when people walk by...empty on the way out, full on the way back! Keystone, LOVE that handle! NO direct information, just a notion of wave harmonics and materials, among other things. I look at that lobby and see a perfect wave guide. It might be an entire wave bazooka, depending on what happens throughout to the Wintergarden. Wonder what that broken-down freighter that sat in the river might have to do with it, but THAT is an even greater co-incidence. It would've made a perfect reflector IF it were parallel to the shore...I couldn't believe they let it sit out there for as long as it did over the summer...thought it was there for over a week. Last thing Homeland Security wants parked in front of a landmark. It never looked quite parallel, though. I understand the 'trigger' for the undoing of the piece before finalization was an idling diesel truck on Jefferson! Previously, the berms deflected any and all low frequency effects from the street...like that freighter, only in the way. Those spaces between the pieces of glass are basically fault lines in a large diaphragm...I could just 'see' the turbulence in that lobby from the beat harmonic of the idling truck...shaking those pieces to their individual and additive resonant frequencies. There is a chance, a likelihood, that they were BOTH harmonics of that frequency...and/or of the current Schumann resonance, or earth heartbeat, of 11-12 Hz (which is increasing steadily for some reason)...and when the energy of the truck was introduced into this system...excrement occurred. I wonder how much of that seismic absorption stuff was in the original design of the piece...and I'd love to know what harmonic analysis was done. My bet is that they didn't consider that beat wave off Jefferson into an UNbalanced horn (due to only ONE side of the sculpture installed then)...any sympathetic, even SEMI-brittle membrane would've flapped itself to death...especially one made of one of our most interesting common amorphous clear solids with certain crack propagations periodically inserted. I think this one was pure accident, there doesn't seem to be a culprit other than Murphy. I hate that pos. Architecture experts...when and what changed with high-rises regarding seismic frequency resonances? I know these things have to go to bedrock to stay upright...but what is there to de-couple the whole from the earth resonance and periodic disturbances?! Certainly things have changed...but I don't have the time now to research what they do differently in heavy seismic areas. Makes a difference to me, I'm looking for my best and easiest way to contact bedrock myself...without going to the mountains. Visiting a pre-seismic high-rise might do the trick!! Just have to study what happens to the toilet water on the same floor of a few...anyone ever notice how it sways?! An 11-cycle wave harmonic in the certain diameter of a bowl should be predictable...and its presence would confirm a good bedrock connection. | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 42 Registered: 08-2006 |
Gannon asks... wonder what other 'art' works to calm the human machine? Gannon, Almost 30 years ago I worked for artist James Turrell on a huge art project being built in the crater of Roden Crater, an extinct volcano in the Painted Desert of Northern Arizona. It is still under construction, but will be an amazing piece of interactive art. There are a series of tunnels throughout the volcano and the Detroit Airport tunnel reminded me of these. I need to update the links, but here are some photos from 1977-79... http://www.lasersol.com/art/tu rrell/RodenMenu.html I am sending the photos of the Borealis and your story about the harmonics to Turrell. I think he will get a kick out of that story due to his knowledge of harmonics and frequencies. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7405 Registered: 12-2003 |
Wow. I wouldn't mind seeing his project on my next cross-country trip in January. After Los Angeles and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I'll be spending some time in Phoenix, then driving up through Flagstaff to Albuquerque then to Taos. I cannot keep away from Taos, it seems. I'm sure some of the folks I know there will be eager to learn of this project, if they don't already know about it. If there is ANY way you could help facilitate this...I would greatly appreciate it. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7416 Registered: 12-2003 |
Made it down after lunch...the pieces of glass are tightly packed at the bottom, but spaced with what look to be silicone strips at the top. You can see a periodic space between the glass pieces...roughly every one to three feet...at the bottom, and a periodic tight gap or three every foot at the top. Only the ends are completely solid, but only in for a foot or so. This is one fascinating sculpture...just looking at the complex light scatter on the ceiling from the second floor (or is that the mezzanine?! anyone?!) can spin into an amazing study in gradient light behavior. It was quite fun to look at from any and every angle...this artist has created a beautiful, and very impressive, 'rendition' of the Aurora Borealis. I don't buy the 'clip' story, unless they threw them ALL out when they went to the metal wrap with the rubber bushings! On the way out, I saw a full mini-mockup of the 'new' RenCen, along with the planned buildings due east in the current surface lots...at the edge of an amazing scale model of the CBD. I also went down to the GM World display they've got in the lower level...saw a car I didn't know ever existed...the 1959 Eldorado convertible in DEEP Cherry Red lacquer, along with a Corvette as old as me. Spoke with a nice PR/training guy who was working there, fascinating fellow, but he couldn't tell me why they would put the weight of the 'Vette on the sign but not the Caddy! (I'd love to see the relative price in today's dollars, too, for both!) They have many of the current models from GM there, too. I'd say anyone who doesn't think GM can make exciting vehicles NEEDS to see this site. SO much less pressure and expectation than going into a dealership...they should take orders there! | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 43 Registered: 08-2006 |
Gannon says...I wouldn't mind seeing his project [Roden Crater] on my next cross-country trip in January. Gannon - you will need to get on a long list! Give me an email address and I will send you the contact information. When I was there over 25 years ago, we thought it would be completed in several years. Today, it is still being built and not open to the public, yet. I don't have any information on when it will open. | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 7426 Registered: 12-2003 |
Never said I wanted to be with the public! But if YOU cannot get in yet... |
