Natural stone, masonry, steel
Bird/Houk Collaborative, Architects
Wall design by Bird/Houk and Dale Johnson
55’ x 30’ x 11’
Whew - Eight months went into this beautiful wall! Nearly every stone was hand shaped to fit, in a painterly application that spans all four floors of this corporate lobby sculpture. Four distinct stone sources were used; Ohio, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Bulgaria were the suppliers of the material, through a unique processing procedure that produces thin veneer of natural, quarried stone.
The idea began as a reference to the client’s business of drilling for natural gas. The designers had come up with the notion that the atrium center shaft, visible on one side for the entire four floor height, should reference the layers of geological strata. Dale suggested that the wall itself be a public sculpture, sculpted before any stone was applied, so that the form of the sculpted stone wall would be as natural as the material used and referenced.
The building itself was built around the construction of the wall, literally; before the windows went in, myself and my assistants endured some mighty windy and cold days as we laid stone after stone.
