Featured Articles: Moving Towards Green
Gary Leavitt
Title: Sculpture for 330 Fellowship Road, Mount Laurel, NJ, forged and fabricated steel,
21'H x 14'W, designed by Tiana Jones-Leavitt
Commissioned For: Liberty Property Trust, Malvern, PA
Trade Prodessional: George Wilson, AIA, NCARB, Meyer Design, Inc.
Gregory Leavitt has been forging new shapes from recycled steel for years, but his sculpture for 330 Fellowship Road, a 110,000-square-foot office building, marks a personal milestone for him and his wife and collaborator Tiana Jones-Leavitt. It is their first contribution to a LEED-certified green building, designed from the ground up to incorporate reused materials, energy-efficient lighting and mechanical systems, and toxin-free carpets and paint.
The conceptual and physical starting point for the sculpture was a set of metal joists salvaged from the old National Football League Films building formerly sited on Fellowship Road. Inspired by the creative activities that took place in that space, the artists came up with a vertical design that alludes to sequences of film frames as well as to the accompanying musical score. The joists, slightly twisted and unable to bear a large amount of weight, were installed directly into a recessed space in the new building's two-story lobby. Welding in the lobby was not an option, so the artist returned to their studio to come up with a modular system of recycled steel components that they could bolt onto the joists in situ. "We have a 20-foot-high scissor lift," Leavitt says. "This helped give us perspective on the piece as we laid out all the pieces on the studio floor. We could see what was working and what needed work."
The finished sculpture, with its rhythmic pattern of convex and concave elements, creates drama that can be enjoyed from multiple vantage points. Visitors see it through enormous glass windows before entering, up close as they pass by, and from a second floor balcony as they climb the stairs. Lights on either side create striking shadows and a sense of movement, heightening the underlying film strip concept.
Leavitt and Jones-Leavitt look forward to other green projects in their future. "We feel fortunate to be working within the green building community now," says Jones-Leavitt.