Flame Flower – CODAworx

Flame Flower

Client: Westin Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego

Location: San Diego, CA, United States

Completion date: 2012

Project Team

Artist

Michael Stutz

Project Manager

John Grant

Public Art Services

Overview

40 feet tall stainless steel forms are abstractions of the natural world around the Westin Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego. Flames, wings, sails, and leaves are referenced in a way that allows the viewer space for interpretation, but gives an anchoring identity to the hotel plaza. Color changing lights create a nighttime show of movement and mood.

Goals

The art was a part of transforming an outdated plaza into a dynamic event space. The artist's vision of a sculpture working as a shadow casting, light reflector, was a way to deal with the large, blank wall of the theater building adjacent to the Hotel. The Plaza space's biggest problem became the project's most appealing aspect.