Thursday, October 29, 2009

Officials pick dramatic sculpture for new fire station

By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer
       Albuquerque fire officials wanted something big to adorn the exterior of their new station near Cibola High School.
    Something really big.
    That's partly why "Reach" was selected from dozens of submissions the fire department received this year.
    The sculpture, two symbolic ladders twisting skyward and connecting at a spiral globe, "has such a great sense of scale," Deputy Fire Chief Gil Santistevan said. "Based on the location of the station and all the other things going on over there, anything else would've gotten lost. We wanted to make a statement in relation to the fire station and the community, and we are hoping at the very least that it inspires people who pass by to slow down and enjoy it."
    Officials dedicated the sculpture outside Station 21 last week. It cost about $40,000 and was paid from the city's 1 Percent for the Arts program.
    Santistevan said an artist has been chosen to design a sculpture for nearby Station 5. It should be installed by the end of the year, he said.
    AFD has sculptures outside a half-dozen of its stations across the city, Santistevan said. The 1 Percent program paid for all of them.
    "Reach" was designed by Spokane, Wash.-based artist Tom Askman.
    Askman's intent was to symbolize "both literally and metaphorically, the support, service and community 'reach' offered by the fire department."
    "Ladder forms have been used often as symbols; however, the colors and twisting, dramatic perspective tapering of these forms and use of perforated metal between the rungs is unique to this sculpture," Askman wrote in his proposal. "These dynamic forms evoke a strong feeling of movement and tension, two distinctive elements characteristic to fire departments."
    Another unique feature of "Reach" is that it lights up at night. Askman used solar-powered LED lights inside the sphere at the top of the piece.
    "The inside of the sphere will contain a pattern of light that will slowly shift colors, pulse and fade as they subtly feather into one another," he wrote. "...There will also be white LED lights in the concrete to illuminate both sides of the ladders and the outside sphere."

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