Collaborative sculpture enhances hotel lobby
By Sigrid Tornquist
Although the majority of work The Design Loft does is generated by Maureen Kelly’s designs, she occasionally installs designs by people such as John Portman from John Portman & Associates Inc. in Atlanta, Ga.
The Design Loft installed “Viento De Mar” (Wind of the Sea), designed by Portman, in the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel in 2009. The installation required three phases: Kelly and her team first laid out the massive floor pattern in vinyl, then installed the channel system, and finally, they went in with the stainless steel fabric. “It was a difficult project,” Kelly says. “There were massive amounts of material. And working with sheer stainless steel fabric is like working with liquid water—it moves everywhere.”
As its name suggests, the piece hangs in a fluid freefall of reflective motion, enhancing the hotel lobby.
