Mountains and Rivers Without End is a sculpture that engages the landscape of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, a landscape which is seen through the large glass elevation of the western lobby of the Convention Center. The sculpture’s form is based on a scale model of a 120-mile section of the topography of the Rocky Mountains which can be seen in the distance from the lobby. This landscape is translated into a diaphanous, transparent veil of aluminum topographic lines of mountains and blue, glass rivers moving through the topography. Like a Chinese landscape painting, the sculpture confounds the shapes of clouds and mountains and also serves as a cognitive map of the watershed of the Front Range that is crucial to Denver’s water supply. The piece floats through the large space of the 70’ high lobby and engages the western light. The sculpture is a register of the changing light from the direction of the Front Range where shifting angles of the setting sun illuminate the sculpture in a dance of light and shadow. From different perspectives within the four-story lobby we see layers of mountains that create solid and void, decomposing and recomposing its form with the changing perspective of the viewer. The path of the sculpture from the lower to the upper terrace level aligns with the path of travel along the escalators through the lobby and between earth and sky. The sculpture’s movement is designed to heighten our awareness of light and shadow in the atrium space and link us to the view of the distant mountains. Mountains and Rivers Without End is a sculpture that engages the landscape of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, a landscape which is seen through the large glass elevation of the western lobby of the Convention Center. The sculpture’s form is based on a scale model of a 120-mile section of the topography of the Rocky Mountains which can be seen in the distance from the lobby. This landscape is translated into a diaphanous, transparent veil of aluminum topographic lines of mountains and blue, glass rivers moving through the topography. Like a Chinese landscape painting, the sculpture confounds the shapes of clouds and mountains and also serves as a cognitive map of the watershed of the Front Range that is crucial to Denver’s water supply. The piece floats through the large space of the 70’ high lobby and engages the western light. The sculpture is a register of the changing light from the direction of the Front Range where shifting angles of the setting sun illuminate the sculpture in a dance of light and shadow. From different perspectives within the four-story lobby we see layers of mountains that create solid and void, decomposing and recomposing its form with the changing perspective of the viewer. The path of the sculpture from the lower to the upper terrace level aligns with the path of travel along the escalators through the lobby and between earth and sky. The sculpture’s movement is designed to heighten our awareness of light and shadow in the atrium space and link us to the view of the distant mountains.
