Sunday, January 3, 2010

Lita Albuquerque's Zenith of Stellar Axis at Palos Verdes Library

Yesterday was Lita Albuquerque's birthday. I found Lita's name on Facebook and it sounded so familiar. Then I realized that I've been admiring her public art work at the PV Main Library for years. Lita Albuquerque - Public Art
"Stellar Axis (1992-1997) – Palos Verdes Peninsula Center Library, Palos Verdes Estates, California. Architect: Zimmer, Gunsul & Frasca Partnership. A cylinder (or “viewing tube”) slices through four floors of lobby space and jutts thirteen feet above the roof. The sun aligns directly overhead two days a year and fills a transparent onyx oval on the floor. The remaining three floors each have a shallow gold leaf dome on the ceiling, reflected in an oval polished stone on the floor, going from gold to blue to red to black. From the fourth floor to the third floor is a gold leafed curved wall. A glass door on the third floor etched with a poetic narrative of what can be seen through the viewing tube throughout the year. These doors lead to a room that contains a glass book on a pedestal, upon which astronomical information is etched. Here the information is contained within the walls of the library itself." from Lita's web site.
View from the upper parking lot. I'll be back for the sun alignment thru the tube.

9 comments:

Cafe Pasadena said...

Post-Happy New Yrs, nT!

Martina said...

This is great - the art and your photos. I especially like the first and the last ones.

brattcat said...

Amazing shots of amazing art!

Lois said...

How interesting! Lovely work.

Virginia said...

GIRL! You outdid youself on these fabulous shots. Take a big big bow!! Terrific.
V

Rob said...

Interesting how we find people both in real life and online. Happy new year!

Brenda's Arizona said...

Wow, this is neat! Like Rob said, how fun to find real people!

Anonymous said...

This is cool. Glad your posting it. Now I'm going back to explore further

Anonymous said...

Zimmer, Gunsul & Frasca Partnership

Mr V and I worked with them on the 1932 Olympic Swim Stadium as well as Intergenerational Community Center over at Exposition Park. The lead architect actually allowed me to design the 3-d stage which he then had made into a maquette. You can see it from google map.

here