Large Metal & Glass Sculptures
In 1994, I was approached by the homeowner’s association for the Privateer Condominium on Longboat Key in Sarasota, Florida; Tim Siebert, a well-known member of the Sarasota School of Architecture, designed the building. They decided to modernize all the architectural components of the entrance. They asked me to create sculptures and appointments aesthetically appropriate to the architect’s intent.
My design was clean and minimalistic but very dramatic. A straightforward installation system was engineered, a structure that created a seamless platform to mount the sculptures with blind fasteners. Four-inch square eyebeams were welded together and secured with heavy-duty bolts into the concrete floor; the base of the stainless-steel sculptures was then plug-welded onto the I-beam supports. Then a skirt was fabricated around the base, hiding how the sculptures were attached.
The glass and stainless-steel sculpture design was straightforward. The large glass discs had many layers of glass stacked together, creating discs four inches thick and thirty inches in diameter. This added so much weight it made transporting the sculptures challenging. To solve this, I designed an installation process to install the stainless-steel structures and then glue the glass on-site.
Each disk was made of three sections fabricated in the studio and then brought to the site. The sections were applied with industrial strengths clear silicone. The silicone required 24 hours of curing time. To solve that problem, I created a clamping system made from two-by-fours and threaded rods and bolts to hold everything in place while the silicone cured.
During the forty-eight-hour curing time, my clients asked many questions because they found these clamping systems unexpected. When the clamping system came off and the glass was cleaned, the sculptures looked beautiful; everything blended nicely with the new modernization of the entrance and the matching door handles and stair rails. This project is an excellent architectural statement, impeccably engineered and fabricated to be compatible with the architect’s intent and the building’s proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.
After twenty-nine years, this public art project has been in place. The sculptures have remained pristine, with no maintenance required beyond dusting them off. My clients were delighted with the finished project and considered the sculptures an asset to the property.
