Principia 1990

Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon

Commissioned by:
Metropolitan Service District, Portland, OR:
in conjunction with the Metropolitan Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts in Architecture Program

Dimensions :
Overall: H 120' x 40' Diameter (H 3658 cm. x 1219 cm. Diameter)Materials :
Brass, Stainless Steel, Steel, Stone, Epoxy terrazzo, Fiberglass, Mechanisms, Gold.

Scope of Work :
• To work closely with the architect, Robert Frasca, a design committee, and a citzen group to assess and offer constructive criticism of the building before sending it out to bid.
• To develop a plan, in committee, as to the possible locations for placement of art in the building.
• To create a major work in Oregon's largest civic structure that clearly presents a distinct focal point, a work that creates a meeting place, a center, and thus distinguishes one identical public space from another.

Site Description :
• In a 490,000 square foot building with two clear glass towers rising 350 feet above the floor below. The building has two mirrored halves.
• The work is situated in one of the two primary reception areas through which public entry is made.
• Within the north tower, a portion of the work is suspended from a mounting platform designed into the
steel structure.

Project Description :

Principia consists of three major components, they occur vertically, one above the other. Under an immense skylit glass tower, a 30 foot terrazzo roundel is set into the floor of the building. The floor is a richly pigmented ultramarine blue and Pompeian red matrix, inlaid with blue and clear glass cullet. Discs of marble and semi-precious stones are delineated with brass. Evoking a celestial chart or ephemeris, the floor establishes the dynamoic relationship; the earth bound alignment for the two suspended elements above. A massive 950 pound, 3 foot diameter brass spherical Foucault pendulum swings from a point high in the glass spire. The slow, hypnotic grace of the pendulum is the dynamic focal point as it swings 20 feet above the public below. Suspended horizontally, just below the pendulum, a 40 foot diameter gilt crown of slim gilt tapers hovers at 20 feet providing visual reference to the rotation of the floor, building, and the very earth.

Principia creates a focus for a building forever in flux. The work asks one to consider the eternal invisible forces so omniscient and yet not readily apparent in a structure dedicated to the moment.