Stainless Steel, galvanized steel, lights
In progress
Two basic challenges were presented as inherent to this project: (1) to intensify, and add delight to the entry experience from the north into the Washington Nationals baseball stadium; and (2) to create art which can successfully connect the realms of "entertainment" and "art".
As 70% of the users of the stadium come from the north, the façade of the parking garages which bracket the ticket plaza to the east and west is of critical importance to the entry experience. These façades are made up of strong, unadorned diagonal concrete surfaces which create the "notch" for the entry plaza.
The garage elevations are large, powerful, and do little themselves to welcome fans to the magical experience of a baseball game.
Inspired by the primary action of the game of baseball itself - the pitch followed by the hit - this public art project consists of a succession of polished stainless spheres derived from a spinning baseball which depicts physics of how a 90-mile per hour pitch is able to curve in such extraordinary ways. Eighteen stainless steel "baseballs" follow the theoretical model of the trajectory of a curving fast ball pitch. The western garage façade will show the more straight and higher-angled trajectory of the same ball as it is hit by the batter and is depicted with twelve "baseballs". The pitch comes at you from the left and sails off from you to the right as you enter.
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