Herbert Dreiseitl has explored the region of Ann Arbor with its Huron River Watershed and the City with its Municipal Center and he saw that this City and Region has great zeitgeist. The artwork — is the centerpiece of a new plaza on Huron Street off Fifth Avenue, adjacent to the new police/courts building and the old city hall building. It works in conjunction with a new rain garden. The focal point is a standing bronze sculpture with blue glass pearls that light up in computerized variations as storm-water circulates over the sculpture's surface.
Atelier Dreiseitl
Water Sensitive Urban Design, Art, Landscape Architecture
This project was originally produced by Atelier Dreiseitl under the leadership of Herbert Dreiseitl. Since its merger in the year 2013 with the Ramboll Group A/S this project and the copyright is owned by Ramboll.
Location
301 E. Huron Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Collaborators
Computer generated Mockups:
Nathan King, Harvard GSD, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Architect:
Ken Clein & Elizabeth Huck, Quinn Evans Architects Ann Arbor, Michigan
Rain Water Design:
Patrick Judd & David Yocca Conservation Design Forum Ann Arbor, Michigan
Sculpture Fabrication:
Rick Russel Future Group Warren, Michigan
Lighting & Water Technology:
Jim Fackert CAE, Inc Hamburg, Michigan
Bronze Casting:
Wolverine Bronze Warren, Michigan
Client
Municipality of Ann Arbor and the Art
Commission
Timeline
Design: 2009-2010
Construction: Oct 2011
Status
Completed
Don’t we often feel empty without hope, especially in times of financial crisis and with the fading life energy in the fall? I know this feeling inside and outside well, it’s everywhere even within me. Why Art then and what has art to do with this?
— Herbert Dreiseitl
© Doug Coombe
The promise of water is all about future. Like rain, it is comforting, providing renewal and refreshment for a dry and thirsty landscape in a cityscape coming out of drought conditions. It is not only a symbol, water gives hope for the potential for life.
Like tears of pain or joy, rain can be soothing. Through grace, both rain and tears create healing effects. It is the mood and spirit of rain that defines the theme for the artwork at Ann Arbor Municipal Center.
This water-light sculpture emerges out of the Rain Garden next to the entrances to the City Hall and Justice Building, connecting this unique place to the qualities of reflection, expectations, and hope for a vision of the future.
“I had a vision that it needed a simple yet strong statement of courage, expressing the process of space and time on this particular place. I kind of thought we needed to strengthen our courage and hope in the human future and reconnect us to the environment”.
— Herbert Dreiseitl
Photo © Ann Arbor News
The sculpture consists of two layers of melted metal, so the viewer can see the shape from the front, back and inside. Resembling the surface of a standing wave, the top is concave and the bottom is convex.
The concave surface is associated with reception, openness, taking in what is from above, and the convex surface is associated with giving away what it has received to the earth below, thus showing the transition from the sky to the earth what rainwater always does.
The glass spheres bring floating light into the darkness of a physical form while water flows from above to quench the thirst of the earth. These glass drops penetrate into and through the sculpture and come out again on the other side.
Water flows down over the streaming texture of the bronze sculpture and is collected in the next layer, streaming down the pathway towards the buildings. Curved metal pieces follow and shape the meandering water of the path, reminding some of the Huron River Watershed structures.
Water and rain are beautiful symbols that connect us to the world outside ourselves. The Artwork engages this larger vision–giving perspective to those who pass by.
“Rain is like a gift from the heavens that is all about the future and renewing the earth. Raindrops like pearls penetrate the surface, glide down, collect, and then flow down the stream. The sculpture tells that whole story“.
A team of capable craftsman all based in the region was formed and the professional firms in this region were both precise and flexible in order to create this work of high technical and logistical performance.
With the full support from Harvard GSD with research and the involvement of the Master students, Herbert Dreiseitl was able to use the technical facilities, to combine hand drawings and computer generated design.
These digital forms were optimized and finally carved out in Soft and Hard foam on a big robotic machine in the basement of the University.
© Paul Littleton
Interesting fact: these forms were the largest ever done on the robot router at Harvard GSD.
