Visitors entering the Empire State Building from the 34th Street entrance and approaching the information desk are greeted by a glass art installation entitled Circle In by Brooklyn glass artist Denise Amses of Amses Cosma Studios. The 16-panel, etch-glass art installation measures 13-feet-wide by 5-feet-high and weighs almost 2,900 pounds. Completed after 12 months of work by Amses, the panels are the final element in a $20 million lobby renovation by Malkin Holdings, owner of the iconic building. “It was always part of our conception of the lobby to place this specially commissioned art installation at the focal point of tenant reception of the recreated lobby,” said Anthony E. Malkin of Empire State Building Company in a prepared statement. “Now, it is finally in place as the final touch of the Empire State Building’shistoric lobby restoration project.”
Circle In by Denise Amses is a 16-panel, etch-glass art installation that measures 13-feet-wide by 5-feet-high and weighs almost 2,900 pounds. photo: john lei
When the 102-story building was constructed in 1931, the lobby featured an ornate ceiling mural that paid tribute to the inspiration and opportunity of the Machine Age. The mural depicted an interpretive celestial sky with sunbursts and stars that resembled industrialgears and wheels. In the 1960s, the mural was covered and irreparably damaged when a then-modern acrylic-panel dropped ceiling with florescent lighting fixtures was installed in an effort to make the building architecturally modern. The renovation of the lobbybegan with the 23-karat gold and aluminum leaf Art Deco ceiling mural.
These distinctive images gave Amses the inspiration to create the multi-level panels containing 15,000 stars and 5,000 circles. The six double-sided carved panels are made of 1/2-inch clear low-iron glass and lit from the seventh level by cold cathode tubes. National Cathode Corporation fabricated tubes to Amses specifications that were bent to follow the carved circles and arcs of the front layer‘s composition. A constellation etched on one level acts as a diffuser while the inside of the circles are clear. Themultiple levels and lighting give depth to the artwork.
For Amses, the most challenging part of the design process was being mindful of the time we are in and ensuring that the “theme and scale” coincided with the ambiance or “feel” of the space. The design concept for the glass panel installation was to create a whole world inside a window. The complex glass vistas allow the observer to see something new each time the display is viewed.
Amses Cosma Inc. was formed over two decades ago by artists Denise Amses and Christopher Cosma. The company has the capacity to conceive and execute large works for public and private projects. The materials and techniques the studio employs include cast crystal and cement, carved glass, wood and stone, fabricated metal and lighting systems.
—Patricia Linthicum
Guest blogger Patricia Linthicum writes Looking At Glass, a blog that focuses on the use of glass in interior design and architecture.