The Los Angeles Times is also reporting on how LAX has restored their light display at the intersection of Sepulveda and Century. For those unfamiliar with this, it is a set of 26 glass-and-steel pylons that line Century Boulevard. The pylon display consists of 11 translucent, tempered glass cylinders 25 feet to 60 feet high in the median of Century Boulevard and a ring of 15 100-foot-tall pylons at Century and Sepulveda boulevards. The pylons were unveiled six years ago in time for the Democratic National Convention. They offered viewers an effervescent glow that could be seen by airline passengers from 3,000 feet. However, they had a complicated stage lighting system that failed in 2004, and as a result, the $15-million display received a $2.5-million makeover that replaced the stage lights with a light-emitting-diode system. The new lights increase the pylons’ possible variations from 300 colors to 16 million, consume 75% less electricity than before, should save the airport $960,000 in annual maintenance costs.
Why am I mentioning this? The Los Angeles Times, in a companion article, also reminds us of a similar effort: The Triforium. The Triforium, near the nearly empty Los Angeles Mall downtown, rises six stories and weighs 60 tons. It is a three-pronged concrete-and-crystal tower, containing 1,494 light bulbs hidden behind colorful Italian glass prisms that were designed to pulsate to music (including classical and disco) piped from loudspeakers. It has never worked well.
The original plans called for the piece to be a Kinetic sculpture, which would use motion sensors and a computer controlled system to detect and translate the motions of passerby into patterns of light and sound displayed by the prisms and carillon. Young also intended for the sculpture to project laser beams into space, which would have made it the world’s first astronomical beacon. Budgetary restrictions, however, curtailed these design elements.
One would think, in these days of motion displays from WinAmp and Windows Media Player, we could put in a simple monitor screen and LEDs to light the triforium and let a cheap PC run the thing. But no; it is just a monument representing the futility of government art efforts.
