Danny Lane’s sculpture ‘Borealis’ at the Renaissance Center

Reflective Distortion

Reflective Distortion, photo by rckrawczykjr.

Ralph writes: Detail of a glass wall within the entrance space of the Renaissance Center with a happy little cross process filter applied for good measure.

The wall is part of the Danny Lane sculpture Borealis. As the Kinetic Curtain in Glass Magazine explains, Borealis is one of the largest glass sculptures in the world:

Borealis comprises two enormous walls of undulating glass that measure 47 and 50 feet long, and weigh nearly 50,000 pounds each. A single wall contains about 1,100 43-pound panels of annealed float glass (auto safety glass of course) 4 inches wide, 11⁄2 inches thick and 221⁄2 feet long. The panels stand on end side-by-side and lean at different angles up to 71⁄2 degrees from center to create a wave effect. If laid end-to-end, the panels would extend 9.4 miles.

The article is pretty interesting and details the engineering challenges in building this amazing work of art. You can also see more from Danny Lane at his web site.

4 thoughts on “Danny Lane’s sculpture ‘Borealis’ at the Renaissance Center

  1. I was so underwhelmed by the sculpture because they described it as the tallest “vertical” glass sculpture in the world and I would probably call it “horizontal”. I was looking for this 100 foot type thing hanging from the ceiling or something because it was described as “vertical” which to me meant floor to ceiling.

    Like

Leave a comment