09-01-04 | News

Texas Size Sculpture
With A Complex Foundation

By Alva Logsdon, Pavestone Company

The 293-foot-long segmented retaining wall is shaped like the bow of a ship. It is 14' high at one end, flush with the ground at the other, with a total area of 4,200 square feet.

 

Corpus Christi, a sparkling city by the sea, is a gateway to one of the world’s natural wonders–the Padre Island National Seashore–as well as home of Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.

Momentum for change has been increasing for the university in the past decade. One manifestation is the school’s new entrance, funded by Dusty Durrill, philanthropist and entrepreneur.

Central to the entryway is an environmental sculpture by artist Robert Roesch featuring a stainless steel wave shape measuring 35 feet across and rising from a serpentine segmental retaining wall atop a 15-foot hill. Juxtaposed to the wave are five slender 35-foot stainless steel spires located 270-plus feet away and connected by the sweeping pavestone wall.

The entire sculpture site encompasses three acres, making it the largest of its kind in Texas. The spires are awash with cobalt blue lighting, making them appear to float above a limestone platform and point toward the rest of the university. The entire installation is bathed in light, adding powerful drama to the Corpus Christi night sky. Due to its unique surface treatment, the sculpture reflects the smallest change in either natural or artificial light.

Even though it was a challenge to maintain a consistent slope of almost three degrees that was battered at a 23 degree angle, the SRW allowed for a sharp corner at the bow of the monument.

Roesch’s experience as an artist guides him in developing a sculptural form in harmony with the environment. To conceive his vision, he sat for hours on the proposed site. “I was struck by its natural beauty. It stands in magnificent juxtaposition to the wetlands of Oso Bay and the endless horizon of the Gulf of Mexico. I saw the lovely existing natural landscape combined with a sculptured wall that would take the form of a ship’s curve. I imagined a soaring wave-like shape of faceted stainless steel sitting on top of this wall. I saw the contrast between the glittering geometric shapes of steel and the organic hill and wall. The wave shape would be bathed in sunlight, giving the feeling of endless possibility and connecting this area visually with the university.”

Anchor Diamond straight face, in a blend of brown and charcoal, was used to create the retaining wall, an integral part of the sculpture. It consisted of a compound ship curve, leaning in as well as varying in height approximately 14 ft. to zero. The SRW allowed for a sharp corner at the bow of the monument. The monument is 293 feet long and 14 feet tall at its peak. The total area of the SRW is estimated at 4,200 sq. ft.

The SRW product selection came to the artist by accident. While fascias and poured concrete were originally considered, Roesch was researching a suitable material when he found Diamond wall being installed in a ditch. “I liked the wall stone because the color and texture were close to nature. And the fact that the environmentally-friendly materials used in creating it do not violate nature.”

Soil berms and drainage swales were constructed as necessary to prevent surface water from overtopping the wall both during and after construction. The design was also not meant to be level, either front to back, or side to side. To achieve the additional batter required, the leveling pad was tilted 13 degrees rather than the usual 10 degrees.

“In Michelangelo’s day, sculptors submitted chalk renderings and elaborately carved wooden models when they proposed civic art to the city bureaucrats,” Roesch said. “Nowadays, you still draw, but you sometimes do your designs on a CAD program. With CAD, I can visualize a sculpture, vary its size and shape, produce patterns for its construction, and prepare proposals for public art presentations. The engineers, architects and builders are reassured by my knowledge of CAD and can download my concept to their computers to better engineer the work. All this happens before the first cut is placed into my metal.”

Creating the compound ship’s curve coupled with the varying height was a challenge. The entire footprint was digitized and input into a total station, then transferred to a grid system of reference points for layout. Unlike any other SRW installation, the stone design called for a defined contour and was not meant to be level front-to-back or side-to-side. This made installation very challenging since a line could not be stretched to define a straight course.

“The design called for the retaining wall to be battered at 23 degrees,” explained Eddie Flinn, Pavestone Company. “A standard Anchor Diamond wall has a batter of 10 degrees; in order to achieve the additional batter required, the leveling pad was tilted 13 degrees.”

“The main challenge in keeping the ship’s curve consistent as the wall went up was to not allow any flat spots,” said Richard Dawson, general contractor foreman, Marshall Company. “Since the foundation was compacted limestone, keeping the coursing perfect was critical to allow the top of the wall to be ‘crisp.’”

This stainless steel sculpture is mounted on a curved segmented retaining wall instead of on poured concrete. The limestone platform is 35 feet across, with five 35-foot stainless steel spires set 270 feet away.

“To make the installation even more difficult, the front of the wall had a slope of almost three degrees, which we needed to keep consistent,” said Scott Sutherland, vice president of Masonry Construction. “We were building a wall that was 293 feet long and went from a height of 14 feet on one end, down to zero height on the other. To keep everything consistent, we constantly measured the slope of the stones and the height of the wall.”

The completed sculpture conveys impelling strength and inspiring beauty. As the gateway to the campus, it represents the transformation of a university.

“A traditional entrance could not capture the excitement of our new, dynamic, growing university,” said Dr. Robert Furgason, president of Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. “We were looking for something different, something fresh, an entrance that could make a statement about our island university. This sculpture will serve as an educational beacon of light for many generations to come. It will provide a statement, day or night, that A&M–Corpus Christi cares about the arts and we are willing to make an indelible impression upon first-time visitors. It also serves as a daily reminder to faculty, staff and students that they are entering a one-of-a-kind learning environment.”

Property owner:
Texas A&M University,
Corpus Christi, Texas
General contractor foreman:
Richard Dawson,
VP/project manager
General contractor:
Marshall Company,
Corpus Christi
Contractor:
Scott Sutherland
Installation contracting firm:
Masonry Construction, Texas
Artist:
Robert Roesch, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Engineer:
Thomas Rainey
Engineering Firm:
Soil Reinforcement Design, Inc., Woodstock, Georgia
Manufacturing Reps:
Eddie Flinn,
Luke Kimble
SRW Manufacturer: Pavestone Company,
San Marcos, Texas