The floating sculpture being built for the downtown Civic Space Park isn't even off the ground yet, but already has won an award.

The sculpture recently received the Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the Arizona Structural Engineers Association. The award was given to Tucson-based M3 Engineering and Technology, a member of the sculpture's design and fabrication team, which is headed by CAID Industries, also of Tucson.

Boston-area artist Janet Echelman designed the sculpture. When completed, it will be suspended 38 feet above the park on a framework of two steel rings, tapered poles and cables.

It will rise to an overall height of 100 feet and be approximately 100 feet wide at the top.

The roughly $2.4 million project is designed to show the wind in motion and create dappled shade in the park.

It will change colors, from blue to orange to pink, according to the season.

The sculpture is to be the focal point of the new 2.77-acre park, which is under construction in the area bounded by Central and First avenues and Fillmore and Van Buren streets.

Work on the towers is under way at the site, and the steel and cable supports for the sculpture are expected to be installed by the end of the month.

The netting, which is to reflect Arizona's distinctive monsoon cloud formations and Saguaro flowers and boots, will not be installed until late this year or early 2009, when most of the heavy construction of the park is completed.

Raphael Ngotie, a senior project manager in the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, is overseeing the Echelman sculpture project.

"The award speaks of the complexity of the project," he said. "It speaks to the level of coordination for this to happen and about the working together of engineers and artists that push the envelope."

Author: Connie Cone Sexton
Source: The Arizona Republic