Soft Landing - Denver, CO - Abstract Public Sculptures on Waymarking.com

Located on the Seventeenth Street Plaza (17th and Larimer), the shiny aluminum sculpture Soft Landing by internationally recognized sculptor Kenneth Snelson was installed in 1982. The addition of a sculptural focus to the plaza was a collaboration between the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the developer La Salle Partners and the building owner, The Prudential Insurance Company of America. Although the actual cost is not available, the going rate for Snelson sculptures of that period and size -- 64 feet by 48 feet by 28 feet -- was around $250,000. The sculpture is advantageously sited to consider the buildings around it and yet be a primary focus for the handsomely landscaped plaza.

Snelson's work concerns itself with the structural forces of tension and compression balanced in space. The sculpture's open form allows viewers not only to walk around it and under it, but also to look through it. Instead of blocking views, this work frames them -- one can see pieces of skyline through the various openings. This piece is a great example of one of the things public art should do: make you look around it, and not just at it.

"It is the orientation of "essential forces" that is the substance of Snelson’s philosophy of the world, a conception in accord with contemporary physics. The structure of the universe is a matter of the arrangement of fundamental forces. In Snelson’s own words, "The universe is the result of nothing but forces. Everything is made of forces." Matter is nothing other than stabilized energy, forces that hold themselves in place by their own force. It is force that is the foundation of everything, the source of all creation. "If there is a God, God is a force." " (from Scuplture Magazine (visit link)

Title: Soft Landing Artist: Kenneth Sneldon Media (materials) used: metal and wire Location (specific park, transit center, library, etc.): 16th Street Plaza Date of creation or placement: October 12, 1982

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