Life as Edward Jensen

Starting on Monday, the crowning jewel of the new Downtown Phoenix Civic Space park – Janet Echelman’s “Her secret is patience” – will be installed.  The installation will begin on Monday and continue through the week.  For those who are in Phoenix over the spring break, check out Downtown Phoenix as Phoenix history is made.  And if you’re out of town, you can check in on what’s happening from a webcam installed at one of the best vantage points of the park: University Center at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus.

The City of Phoenix’s press release (from here):

Crews Set To Install Netting on Civic Space Sculpture

Beginning Monday, March 9, crews will complete the installation of a major work of public art that will be the focal point of the new Downtown Civic Space, now under construction at Taylor Street and Central Avenue.

Designed by American artist Janet Echelman, the iconic artwork is made of flexible netting suspended 38 feet above the ground on a framework of steel rings, cables and poles. The netting is designed to billow and move in the wind. The artwork will rise to an overall height of 100 feet and be about 100 feet wide at the top. Specialized lighting will give the sculpture a landmark presence at night.

During this final phase of installation, crews will attach the sculptural netting to the steel rings. The work is expected to take at least three days, and be completed by the end of the week. The lighting will be added as part of ongoing construction of the park.

Echelman’s vortex-like design for the net was inspired by Arizona’s distinctive monsoon cloud formations, and by saguaro flowers and saguaro boots (which form inside the cactus and are often used as nests by birds). The work was known unofficially as “Skybloom,” but Echelman recently titled it, Her Secret is Patience, from American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, “Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”

A union of art and engineering, the sculpture’s unique structure received the Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the Arizona Structural Engineers Association (ASEA) even before it was erected, in June 2008. The award was given to Tucson-based M3 Engineering and Technology, a member of the sculpture’s design and fabrication team, which is led by CAID Industries, also of Tucson.

The design, fabrication and installation of the $2.5 million project involved a wide range of construction professions, producing about 150 jobs, 110 of them in Arizona.

The Civic Space artwork is Echelman’s first permanent monumental sculpture in the United States. It was commissioned by the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture Public Art Program using the city’s percent-for-art art funds. These funds are part of Phoenix’s capital improvement program. General purpose funding was not used for this project.

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, which manages Phoenix Public Art, was established by the Phoenix City Council in 1985 to advance the growth and development of the city’s arts and cultural community.

For more information about the Office of Arts and Culture, visit phoenix.gov/arts.

The ASU College of Public Programs’ press release also announces the relaunching of the “Dean’s-eye View” webcam over the construction site (from Corey Schubert, media manager for the College):

Webcam offers ‘dean’s-eye view’ of park’s art installation

PHOENIX — ASU’s College of Public Programs has reactivated its live webcam to share a “dean’s-eye view” of the installation of artist Janet Echelman’s floating net sculpture at the Downtown Civic Space Park.

The sculpture, titled “Her secret is patience,” is set to be installed March 9 to 12. The design of the sculpture was inspired by Arizona’s distinctive monsoon cloud formations, and by saguaro flowers and boots (which form inside the cactus). Its title comes from a quote by poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”

The webcam view from the sixth floor of the college, located next to the park in downtown Phoenix, overlooks the two giant steel rings which will help support the sculpture.

The webcam can be accessed online at http://copp.asu.edu/do/from-the-dean/civic-space. It is housed in the offices of Debra Friedman, university vice president and dean of the College of Public Programs at the Downtown Phoenix campus.

The flexible netting will be suspended 38 feet above the ground on a framework of steel rings, cables and poles. The artwork will rise to an overall height of 100 feet and be about 100 feet wide at the top. Special lighting will make the sculpture visible as a landmark at night.

The structure that will support the art sculpture was a complicated feat of engineering that was recognized with the Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the Arizona Structural Engineers Association.

When opened next month, the 2.77-acre Downtown Civic Space Park will include several large grassy areas, spaces with game tables, an interactive water feature, public seating and hardscape where student organizations can network, much like they do outside ASU’s Memorial Union in Tempe, and Phoenicians and visitors can mingle.

For information about the webcam view, contact Corey Schubert at (602) 496-0406 or corey.schubert@asu.edu. For more about the net sculpture installation, contact Joyce Valdez at the City of Phoenix at 602-262-6213.

At the lecture where Ms. Echelman revealed her official title for the project, one of the comments shared at that lecture (by the lecture’s organizer) is that this art installation is similar to world famous art installations (or architecture) in major world cities like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Clock Tower at the Palace of Westminster in London, and the Sears Tower in Chicago.  In other words, like those structures are the symbol of their respective city, so would this dynamic art installation be the symbol of Phoenix.

And don’t worry: as the installation progresses, I’ll be Downtown taking pictures of history in the making…

-Edward Jensen