K&L Gates brings new art to new home
Last year, when K&L Gates proposed the removal of two massive abstract murals that filled the main lobby at One Oliver Plaza, Downtown, the city's largest law firm came off looking like a bull in a china shop.
Well, now that new homes have been found for both Pierre Soulages' "14 May, 1968" and Virgil Cantini's "Aerial Scape," and renovations are nearly complete on the building's lobby and the 14 floors the firm occupies in the 37-story tower, it turns out the bull is a bit more erudite than it may seem.
That's because K&L Gates has, and has had for some time, quite the contemporary-art collection of its own. Works by such big names as Ellsworth Kelly, Jason Martin, Nancy Haynes, Jim Isermann and Robert Motherwell have brightened up the already uplifting, nearly all-white, cloud-like environment designed by Washington, D.C.-based Lehman Smith McLeisch. The works are scattered throughout the public areas of the 14 floors. Miami-based corporate art consultant Lisa Austin has worked with the firm's collection for 15 years now.
As part of the firm's occupancy, the tower, owned by One Oliver Associates LP, has been renamed "K&L Gates Center" and the firm's name has been placed on the top of the building.
On its floors, K&L Gates has built first-class office space, including a state-of-the-art conference facility that incorporates green principles. Other improvements to the tower include a total renovation of the building lobby, the exterior facade of the first two floors and the plazas surrounding the building. And, surprise, all of it -- and I mean all of it -- contains art.
Most notably, and most obvious to the public, is a neon-and-florescent light-work installation by London-based Cerith Wyn Evans.
"The artist was chosen for his use of light, which was an important theme and consideration for the lobby space," Austin says. "The designer wanted to create a light-filled environment, which would open up the dark lobby, and extend that out into the plaza."
Wyn Evans' conceptual practice incorporates a wide range of media, including installation works, sculptures, photography, film and text, among which preoccupation with language is the common thread. Informed by film history and literature, his installations work as spools of meaning, unraveling in varied and often interconnected ways.
For the lobby of the K&L Gates Center, Wyn Evans has created a series of light columns that illuminate the interior space and the outside plaza of the building. According to Evans, "the columns trope on classical architecture and form zones of illumination. Their circularity of form compliments the largely angular practicalities of the building's architecture."
The columns are complimented by a Mobius Strip, a neon sculpture placed in the entrance by the reception desk. The Mobius represents a legendary paradox: it symbolizes the mathematical notion of "endless surface." The sculpture represents three-dimensional space by means of a two-dimensional drawing in light; electrical energy is in constant flow along the glass tubing.
The use of light within architectural environments is a cornerstone of Wyn Evans' practice, and this site-specific piece was created in response to designs for the K&L Gates Center's new lobby. The viewer is guided from the exterior to the interior, where the lobby's redesign becomes a glowing haven.
On the 28th floor, where visitors will find the law firm's lobby, two of four murals representing the four seasons flank the reception area, with the other two being directly above their locations on the 29th floor. The murals were designed by Brazilian artist Beatrice Milhazes. They are based on "America's seasons," because, according to Milhazes, "the composition and combination of colors are based on my feelings on the changes I can experience here. It is so much about life and makes you feel part of the nature."
The murals were painted under the supervision of Norm Laich, a Los Angeles-based artist who has worked with more than 100 internationally known painters to produce their work in monumental scale for public projects and museum exhibitions. Laich, who has shown his work in commercial galleries and nonprofit spaces in Los Angeles, has produced murals since 1997 for such artists as Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Lawrence Weiner, Arturo Herrera and Ingrid Calame, among others. "He was assisted in this project by Pittsburgh-based artists John Pena and Lenka Clayton," Austin says.
The works of all these artists, along with pieces by Jeppe Hein, Herbert Hamak and Prudencio Irazabal, make for a truly contemporary showcase indeed.
