Art Consultant: Wilkins Art Associates, Inc., Pam Wilkins, principal
Architect and Interior Planning: TRO Jung/Brannen, Ana Roda-Fogarty, IIDA
Coastal Atmospheres
16 Windows of various sizes totaling approximately 120 sf.
Coastal Atmospheres wafts along this corridor from within deeply recessed, sculptural window openings. The widely spaced sequence of windows is connected by the always nearby ocean horizon.Coastal Atmospheres is located along an approximately 110 foot length of corridor connecting other hospital facilities with the Mugar Building addition. The windows along this corridor are deeply recessed into a thickened exterior wall. This added thickness allows the wall surface to be sloped and molded into an exciting three-dimensional surface that reveals only a window or two at a time.
The stained glass in these windows draws on this innovative sequence echoing the sloping angles and planes within the wall. A gently curved “horizon” line within the stained glass connects the windows. Deeper, more saturated color in the four lower windows screens views to a utilitarian area beyond while presenting impressionistic and whimsical aquarium-like scenes. Darker color graduates into brighter, airier color in the twelve upper windows with their abstract and transparent maritime imagery
Abstract though Coastal Atmospheres may be, wafting focal points provide opportunities for each viewer to discover their own narrative. Along the way, one may encounter clouds, mists, sunrises, squalls, promontories, boats, fogs and lighthouses appearing and receding. Approaching windows are subtly announced by glowing, sculptural wall surfaces ahead.Each window is conceived as a self-contained statement, while the overall sequence of stained glass implies a three-dimensional vista that is only glimpsed one window at a time.
A predominance of blues, blue-greens, ambers, yellows and violets further unify the linear progression of Coastal Atmospheres. Lighter tints sparkle with a crystalline transparency that permit views to the sky beyond. On sunny mornings light and color flood into the corridor in ever-changing patterns while filmy French opal glass hovers near the picture plane. Sparkling, hand-pressed lenses punctuate the stained glass with tiny, inverted versions of the view beyond. A flash of mirror-like and chameleon dichroic glass details flickers and shifts as one walks past.
Materials: German and French mouthblown glass, domestic rolled glass, hand-pressed lenses, dichroic glass, lead and solder with a protective glazing of tempered glass.