Mobile Map Guide,
North Side, Stops 61-69
FIRST, PICK UP A MAP
This guide is intended as a supplement to the $3 art and architecture guide that is available at the Visitors Center at 506 Fifth Street in downtown Columbus.
61 – Transformation
Created by artist Howard Meehan, Transformation is a stainless steel sculpture with three pillars of lighted glass and a polished steel ring. The surrounding concrete wall features a quote by Benjamin Disraeli. Meehan said the three panes of glass represent life, liberty, and the pursuit of learning, as well as the collaboration between IUPUC, Ivy Tech, and the City of Columbus.
Meehan said, “The benchmark is so high in this little community. I talk to a lot of architects, friends of mind, and they are very envious of me doing a project in this community because it’s such an outstanding place for art and architecture. So I’m very proud to have a piece here, very very proud.”
The surrounding concrete wall features a quote by Benjamin Disraeli: “A University Must be a Place of Light, of Liberty, and of Learning.”
Take me to Transformation.
62 – Discovery
This sculpture is a kugel, the German word for “ball.” The three-foot-diameter, 2,300 pound ball is carved from South African New Belfast black granite, kept in motion by 12 pounds of water pressure. Each of the three books are made from a different type of granite from the Bavarian Forest in Germany.
“Discovery” suggests undefined possibilities both internally through reading and reflection, and externally through the world around us. The kinetic nature of the piece itself is a reminder that the pursuit of discovery is never ending.
Made by Kusser Granitwerke – Germany
Take me to Discovery.
63 – Hospital Data Center
Columbus Hospital Data Center
2003, Robert W. Carrington, Ghafari Associates
Take me to the Data Center.
64 – Columbus Learning Center
The Columbus Learning Center is a multi-tenant education facility and community resource center. The design of the two-story building is inspired by the surrounding landscape that contains the simple forms of industrial factories, farmhouses, and silos. The new facility sits between two existing buildings (Ivy Tech Community College and Indiana University Purdue University Columbus) and acts as a bridge, creating movement between the buildings and thereby reducing their physical and psychological distance.
The “silo” near the main entrance houses a one-of-a-kind Chihuly artwork, Sun Garden and Panels, that is open to public viewing, see more information on the Chihuly in Columbus page.
There is artwork throughout the building, the public is encouraged to enter the building to view it.
The primary two-story classroom building plan is arched, with a “floating” brick facade to the public front and a glass curtain wall with a two-story “Main Street” gallery space with a ramp on the landscape side.
The double height library is contained in a separate brick and glass pavilion, that defines the northern edge of a central courtyard.
The public front entry is defined with brick walls that reach out like open arms forming an outdoor room to welcome students and the community.
Take me to the Learning Center.
65 – Sun Garden Panels
This is the second public work in Columbus by acclaimed glass artist Dale Chihuly
The totally unique Chihuly installation was commissioned and donated by the Richard Johnson family
Located inside the “silo” near the front entrance to The Learning Center, it is open to the public and free of charge to view.
Visitor parking is available just off of Central Avenue, near the front entrance
Each of the 32 panels was created, painted, and signed by Chihuly, to be suspended beneath the Atrium’s skylight where sunlight shines through the translucent plexiglass panels, and spotlights in the evening illuminate it.
Chihuly interpreted several of the forms he developed in blown-glass forms, including his Baskets, Reeds, Ikebana, and Floats.
Unlike his glass work, Chihuly painted the panels himself, using 4-ounce twist-top plastic bottles, peppering the panels with polymer-based acrylic colors.
Take me to Chihuly’s Sun Garden Panels
66 – Adv. Manufacturing Ctr.
The Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AMCE) is a state-of-the art education and workforce training center. About the new building, architect Cesar Pelli said, “I am excited to be designing a building again for Columbus, Indiana; a city that I much admire and love.”
The facility is designed for a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum, and contains integrated technology labs, classrooms, faculty offices, conference rooms and student/faculty common areas.
With two central outdoor courtyards, the interior is filled with natural light with large perimeter and courtyard windows. The glass is fritted to control heat gain and glare.
The building’s simple steel structure is expressed with the perimeter columns and the roof framing exposed at the overhangs. The silver metal panel exterior and interior walls are non-load bearing to allow for flexibility for future needs or technology changes.
Take me to Advanced Manufacturing Center.
67 – Parkside School
Norman Fletcher, of the Architects Collaborative, designed the school in 1962 with a series of barrel vaults using wood beams, wood planking, and steel columns, creating an umbrella effect. The same architectural device is repeated in the central section and the barrel vault roof of the gymnasium.
The addition in 1990, also by Fletcher, is seamless by using the same style of barrel vaults.
The school is raised on a two-foot podium of earth, with recessed courtyards and play areas, to provide a change from the surrounding flat terrain.
The brick classroom wings feature deep laminated wood beams that project beyond the exterior wall to provide shading to the large windows and clerestory windows below.
Behind the school, Freedom Field was specially designed to be entirely handicapped accessible, allowing the interaction of physically challenged and able-bodied children and parents.
Take me to Parkside School.
68 – Par 3 Clubhouse
This clubhouse, designed to be a good neighbor to the nearby First Baptist Church and W.D. Richards Elementary School, was built of wood shingle roof and cedar siding.
The simplicity of this building’s form is dominated by the large pitched roof, which is then articulated with a skewed plan, an elongated eyebrow window and an arcade/loggia overlooking the golf course. A cube on a pole with super graphics creates a striking identity.
The 45-acre golf course is landscaped with crabapple, blue spruce, scotch pine, and pin oak trees.
Take me to the Par 3 Clubhouse.
69 – First Baptist Church
Visitors are welcome to view the interior of this church on weekdays (subject to availability) – all guests must check from the rear parking lot at the visitor entrance, on the west side of the building.
First Baptist Church is positioned on the brow of a gently sloping knoll. This elevation, combined with its peaked non-dimensional bell tower, emphasizes the building’s function as a place of worship.
The steep roof, twice as high as the supporting brick walls, is covered with hand-laid slate. The highlight of the interior design is a wall of pierced brick at the front of the chancel.
The predominant silhouette of the two-story building on the hill are two steeply pitched A-frame slate roofs, one smaller than the other. Both roofs at one end have a brick wall that extends above the roof, one with a singular round opening for a bell, which designates this as a place of worship.
The main congregational entry is approached by a drive up the hill to a T-shaped opening in a brick wall across a bridge and over a moat-like space that brings light to the lower level. The narthex is a low ceiling space which creates a sense of humility before ascending stairs to the dramatic sanctuary.
The sanctuary is essentially windowless except for the vertical skylights at the front, which highlight a “pierced” brick wall that screens the choir, organ and baptistry behind and narrow glazed openings between the roof overhang and the brick walls.
A centrally suspended wood cross provides a focal point in the random pattern of the brick wall.
Take me to First Baptist Church
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