2019
Hollywood, CA
Materials: steel, porcelain enamelled steel, LED lights, soil moisture sensor, electronics
Client: Jh Snyder and Company
Architecture: Gensler
Engineering: Nous Engineering, Rechenraum e.U.
Electrical Design Engineering and Controls: HB Abrams Company
Fabrication: Ramirez Ironworks Group, KVO Industries
Installation: Plas-Tal Manufacturing Co.
The Spring displaying high-moisture conditions via hot-hued lighting.
via cool-hued lighting.Double sided graphics housed within a continuous band of steel animate as pedestrians walk/ drive/ scoot past on the Selma Avenue or through the lobby of the new WeWork campus. The animated effect is analog – using a barrier grid animation technique to activate processed graphics screen printed on panels embedded in the sculpture. LEDs change color and bring different graphic layers to the foreground depending on the soil moisture levels of the catchment basin beneath the sculpture. Water levels vary depending on storm events – dramatizing the function of the catchment basin as an “urban spring” that slowly releases water into the watershed.
The sculpture sits atop the 5’ deep stormwater catchment basin that processes stormwater for the building. It is full of soil and plants and captures rainwater that lands on the 8 story building’s roof. The plants sequester heavy metals in their roots, cleaning the water as it seeps gradually into the storm drain following a storm event. The lighting embedded in the sculpture changes color as soil moisture levels rise and fall to call attention to the nearly-invisible process performed in the basin. Didier’s work often incorporates environmentally-responsible techniques and promotes awareness of the reciprocal relationship of humans to their natural and built environments. For The Spring, Didier embedded a soil moisture sensor in the dirt that fills the basin. Depending on moisture levels that span from dry to saturated, the color changing LEDs that illuminate the interior of the sculpture change color – popping some graphics to the foreground and causing other layers of graphics to recede.
In this way, daily visitors to WeWork Hollywood get a sense of what is happening in the functioning of the storm basin, raising their awareness to their environment and its connection to the sea.