Webcam offers ‘dean’s-eye view’ of construction

ASU’s College of Public Programs now offers a live webcam that shows a “dean’s-eye view” of construction at the Downtown Civic Space Park from the sixth floor of the college, located next to the park in downtown Phoenix.

Workers began installing three giant steel beams and two large steel rings June 23 to support the floating net sculpture designed by artist Janet Echelman.

The webcam can be accessed online at http://copp.asu.edu/do/from-the-dean/civic-space. It is housed in the offices of Debra Friedman, university vice president and dean of the College of Public Programs at the Downtown Phoenix campus.

The design of the sculpture, “Sky Bloom,” was inspired by Arizona’s distinctive monsoon cloud formations, and by saguaro flowers and boots (which form inside the cactus).

The sculpture 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 about 100 feet wide at the top.

Building the structure that will support the art sculpture is a complicated feat of engineering that has taken almost a year to plan and design.

The net sculpture is expected to be installed later in the year, and the webcam will be active for real-time viewing during that time.

The sculpture already has received the Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the Arizona Structural Engineers Association.

When completed early next year, the Downtown Civic Space Park will include several large grassy areas, spaces with game tables, public seating and hardscape where student organizations can network, much like they do outside ASU’s Memorial Union in Tempe.

For information, contact Corey Schubert at (602) 496-0406 or corey.schubert@asu.edu.