Merit Award
Strands of History
Location
Long Beach, CA
Client
California State University
Design Firm
BJ Krivanek Art + Design, Chicago
Design Team
BJ Krivanek (Principal in Charge), Joel Breaux, Lillian Jones, Karen Jean Hunt
Fabricators
BRO Designed Construction
Consultants
LPA, Inc. (landscape architect)
Photographer
Jeff Kurt Peterson
Working with historians and archivists, BJ Krivanek researched California history and recent social contexts to develop an environmental art program that builds upon the urban design of the campus, siting a program of environmental elements within a metaphoric landscape. The installation is comprised of three primary groups of elements: a History Wall (an historic timeline structure inscribed with suggestive issues related to California history), Possibilities + Outcomes (layered panels inscribed with interrelated issues – possibilities and their outcomes), and Campus Foundings (lighting fixtures inscribed with the names and founding dates of the 23 campuses, which illuminate the previous elements in a metaphoric manner).
Jury Comment
"Students at this campus explore changes in the school, state, and society as they walk past three strands of text beside a raised walkway. An extremely conceptual piece, but with clear and elegant execution. The layered type treatments are genuinely beautiful and the installation itself fits almost seamlessly with the surroundings."