Glass Design Chosen For Stanwix

A pair of New Yorkers has been chosen to design and install a new permanent art-glass lighting installation in the lobby of 11 Stanwix Street. 28 individuals and teams applied and the judges chose the design by Jill Reynolds and Daniel Spitzer. The judges say they were, “extremely impressed with the concept and quality of the “Rivers of Glass: Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” proposal.” Spitzer says, “This is a great opportunity for us to work in such an interesting and historic building. It was a challenge to activate the space from inside and out, but it all came together. We love Pittsburgh and are excited to come back to town to produce the work with the assistance of two or three local artists at Pittsburgh Glass Center.” According to a press release the artists represented the three rivers in three ways. First the shape and orientation of the rivers is represented in the flow of the hanging glass. Second, each glass element is comprised of three or four blown glass forms based on high-speed photographs of water droplets. From across the plaza the view is of a long blue line rising and falling across the length of the building lobby windows and from below the view is of a stream of aqueous blue forms. The artists also borrowed from the regions jazz history. The title of the piece is borrowed from a Duke Ellington big band piece that featured the work of longtime Pittsburgh resident Billy Strayhorn. The glass artists then took a segment of the sound wave from a classic performance of the tune, stretched it out on a computer, and used that as one of the lines in the work.