"One of KC’s iconic ‘hair curlers’ on Bartle Hall damaged in lightning strike" - Kansas City - Mo.
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member iconions
N 39° 05.806 W 094° 35.307
15S E 362637 N 4328715
These four aluminum art pieces rest atop the support pylons of the Kansas City Bartle Convention Center - 301 West 13th Street in Kansas City, Mo.
Waymark Code: WMVV4G
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/27/2017
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member lumbricus
Views: 2

Located in downtown Kansas City, artist R.M. Fischer worked with Zahner to produce the stainless steel and aluminum sculptures which rest upon massive pylons at the intersection of three major highways. After completion in 1994, these four sculptures quickly became icons synonymous with Kansas City's downtown cityscape.

These sculptures are inspired by 1930s Art Deco style, which can be seen throughout the Municipal Auditorium's chandeliers and decorative designs at Bartle Hall. The tube frames which form the bases are 18'x40' in size. The concrete pylons that the sculptures sit atop are 300' tall. Zahner employed fusion welding, a technique with nuclear plant specifications using aluminum and stainless steel with a #4 Satin finish.

- Zahner website



They are among the most distinctive features of Kansas City’s downtown skyline — the four Sky Station sculptures atop Bartle Hall.

What you and probably everybody else around town calls “the hair curlers.”

Now one of them — the biggest and most dramatic-looking of the four — apparently has been hit by lightning and needs fixing.

It’ll cost more than $1 million, but taxpayers won’t be on the hook: The city’s property insurance will cover it.

According to City Manager Troy Schulte, workers first noticed the damage last fall when they were setting up blue lights on the sculptures to celebrate the Kansas City Royals’ winning season.

Inspectors determined a lightning strike had cracked the easternmost sculpture. Water had also seeped in, another problem.

So, Schulte said, the city will have to get a helicopter to remove the sculpture, have it repaired at a fabrication shop, and then helicopter it back up.

The City Council’s finance committee on Wednesday is expected to consider a $1.3 million contract with A. Zahner Co., the world-class Kansas City-based fabricator that built the sculptures, to do the repair work.

This is the first damage to the Sky Stations since they were installed in 1994. In fact, said City Architect Eric Bosch, all four sculptures have built-in lightning rods, so they can accept lightning strikes and ground them.

But in this case, the lightning split one of the tubes on the sculpture, and the damage is too severe to fix while it’s perched on top of a convention center pylon.

The repair cost, incidentally, is likely to be more than the original $1.1 million cost of the fanciful metal sculptures that were approved under Kansas City’s public art program.

Bosch also pointed out that the value of the artwork has grown significantly, although he didn’t have an exact dollar figure.

The sculptures were designed by New York artist R.M. Fischer. Initially controversial — some people thought they were exorbitantly expensive, spiky metal oddities — they’ve since become an integral part of the city’s calendar art.

Bosch said the other three Sky Station sculptures are in fine shape, and in general the whole creation has stood up remarkably well to nature’s onslaughts over the past 22 years.

Bosch said it makes perfect sense to have Zahner do the repair work, and the city will even use the same helicopter company that first installed the pieces.

The Missouri Department of Transportation and surrounding neighborhoods have approved the removal schedule. Tentatively, the helicopter is supposed to perform the work early on the morning of Sunday, May 8, although that depends on the weather and the wind.

The removal is not expected to take very long. Bosch recalled that in 1994, city officials thought it would take all morning to install the sculptures, but it ended up only taking 45 minutes.

The sculpture will then be trucked to Zahner’s fabrication shop near Ninth Street and the Paseo. The reinstallation should occur in late summer or early fall.

- Kansas City Star website

Type of publication: Newspaper

When was the article reported?: 03/31/2016

Publication: Kansas City Star

Article Url: [Web Link]

Is Registration Required?: no

How widespread was the article reported?: regional

News Category: Arts/Culture

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