PROFESSIONAL WORK
Masaar Memorial
Serving as a monument celebrating the bond between a parent and child, this artwork reflects the intertwined nature of two forms with gravitydefying gesturing and a subtle play of curvature and balance.
The complexity of the design detailing surrounded efforts to not only consider the major cantilevering of the structural system, but also access considerations for bolt-ups and maintenance of the sculpture. An intensive phase of feasibility studies was prioritized in order to meet an aggressive build schedule. This required heavy coordination between international design and engineering studios but resulted in a holistic solution that minimized expressed seams while considering material detailing and proximity and other lighting and site parameters.
Proximity to a future water feature dictated the material selection of stainless steel which also allowed for a custom paint finish application with enough contrast to have distinct legibility. Concealing of the connection pins required for stability was also a unique design constraint that led to ingenuity of surface manipulation for as little of the structure itself to be seen from principal views of the overall form.
TECHNICAL
DESIGN UAP New York
MANUFACTURING UAP Shanghai
ARTWORK TITLE Masaar Memorial
LOCATION Riyadh, UAE
YEAR 2023
Masaar
Tower of Ten Billion Stars Lindy Lee, IQHQ San Diego
Lindy Lee, a Chinese-Australian artist, draws upon her Zen Buddhist practice to explore the cosmos and interconnectedness. San Diego’s cultural and geographical significance – as a major land border crossing situated by Mexico – influences her deeply. Tower of Ten Billion Stars stands as both a beacon and a way-finder, featuring a perforated design reminiscent of light shimmering on the ocean’s surface. Despite its size, the sculpture imbues the bustling cityscape with a sense of serenity.
Working over a span of time where in-person quality control visits were not possible, a fully remote digital dot application patterning review and translation was required for this artwork. A digitally carved maquette of the scaled work was created in order for the artist studio team to apply a perforation pattern scheme direct to the surface. Via a process of scanning and re-translation, the pattern was reviewed and shifted to paper templates applied at 1:1 to the physical skin of stainless steel for drilling. This analogue process matches the hand-manipulation of panel beating the outer surface, finding the perfect harmony between high precision digital procedures and checks over a skilled artisan hand.
Typical integration of structure was escalated further than previous editions always toward the effort to minimize contact with the outer surface allowing for light to pass through without shadowing or gaps. The result is as uninterrupted a lantern as possible within the tight parameters of a stabilized form for a waterfront site in California.
ARTIST Huntington Beach
PROJECT Tower of Ten Billion Stars
LOCATION San Diego, CA, USA
CLIENT MIG Public Art
YEAR 2023
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Funktional Frequency, Liberation Station
Xenobia Bailey, MLK Library
Internationally recognized artist Xenobia Bailey creates intricate installations inspired by urban material culture and what she has termed “Funktional Design”—an aesthetic that has evolved from the creativity and resourcefulness of rural and urban African American homemakers since emancipation. The aesthetic is vibrant and complex: combining color, pattern, texture, and form into woven 3D installations.
At UAP, I had the privilege to work alongside the artist for a landmark commission in the Grand Reading Room of the newly renovated Martin Luther King Library in Washington, D.C. Preserving Xenobia’s craft aesthetic and technique was of the utmost importance to the artist and curators. Our team worked with the artist’s studio to develop a systems approach that allowed for the translation of her delicate designs into a permanent, colorful canopy composed of fine-metal crochet mobiles.
Funktional Frequency, Liberation Station transforms the third-floor reading room into a kaleidoscopic installation, composed of colorful concentric circles and repeating cosmic patterns. The connection to the cosmos as part of the artwork narrative hints at the vastness of accessible information within the library archives, and its function as a hub for innovation, research, and shared learning.
Individual mobiles hanging from strong points in the ceiling above are allowed to sway freely and spin independently for an ever-changing composition. Integrated within the bent pipes are hand-woven crochet surfaces in thin gauge copper wire necessary for the fire rating but also beneficial to the bouncing of light with inherent reflectivity. A heavily integrated stretched acoustical print is also stretched at the line of the reading room glass, disguising the seam of the inner soffit above while also creating a integral backdrop to the effect of these mobiles suspending from an infinite plane with integrated figues of pivotol marches in Washington DC history.
ARTIST Xenobia Bailey
ARTWORK TITLE Funktional Frequency, Liberation Station
LOCATION Washington, DC
YEAR 2020
Xenobia Bailey, Funktional Frequency,
Xenobia Bailey, Funktional Frequency, Liberation Station
Xenobia Bailey, Funktional Frequency, Liberation Station
Copper crochet process and application by Artist
Final installation, Grand Reading Room level
City in the Grass Leonardo Drew
Leonardo Drew’s first public art project, City in the Grass, presents a topographical view of a cityscape atop a patterned panorama. The installation extends over 100 feet long with a richly textured, vibrantly colored surface. Drew’s goal is to bring people into and onto the work, to study its swells and folds, and locate a personal and physical place within purposeful voids. The artist offers the metaphor of an undulating torn carpet as a complicated reference to home, comfort, and sanctuary. Viewers can look onto City in the Grass as if they are giants assessing a terrain and can embed themselves within the fabric of the sculpture.
Drew layers materials, drawing on his signature techniques of assemblage and additive collage. At various points, the sprawling work crescendos into three rising towers. These sculptures grow in and around a patterned surface made of colorful sand that mimics Persian carpet design and reflects the artist’s interest in East Asian decorative traditions. Bringing together domestic and urban motifs, City in the Grass invites all visitors to walk on and rest on its surface, creating a community within a public oasis.
Stippling dot patterning and bump-roll forming the overall curvatures, the pieces stitched together at sections where panels met the ground with a system of rivets that allowed for easy installation and removal. The artist utilized the etching key that was first digitally translated to a vector pattern from paper sketches and then passed back to the studio to methodically apply colored pigmented sand in a “paint by number” operation. A thorough sampling round resulted in an order of operations from keying the metal surface to applying a sequential layer of paint, sand, and top coat sealant to ensure durability over multiple installations.
From integrated cap ends to panel seam analysis that worked with intended anomalies in the patterning, the final work is bold and diverse in color, texture, and distinct level of public engagemnt.
ARTIST Leonardo Drew
ARTWORK TITLE City in the Grass
LOCATION Madison Square Park, New York, NY, USA
YEAR 2018
Lonardo Drew, City in the Grass Christopher
Lonardo Drew, City
Lonardo
Big Button Sculpture Garment District Alliance + Local Projects
The Garment District Alliance, a not-for-profit corporation established in 1993 to improve the quality of life and economic vitality of Manhattan’s Garment District, asked Local Projects and UAP to consider the future of the district’s beloved landmark, an oversize sculpture known as the Big Button. More than 20 years old and resting on a 70’s-era information kiosk that was on the verge of collapse, the original sculpture was in danger of disappearing.
We decided to honor the original design with a more dynamic approach that removed the sculpture’s static relationship with the outdated kiosk.
The design proposal created the illusion of the over-scaled button upheld by a single stainless-steel thread that supports a 32-foot stainless-steel needle, and a button that changed from a dark black to a bright and iconic taxi cab yellow. The new sculpture creates a dynamic experience for visitors, while improving sight lines and enhancing pedestrian flow for the roughly one million pedestrians who pass the corner of Seventh Avenue and 39th Street every day.
Informing the Concept Design massing evolution, a heavy focus on satisfying all requirements of accessibility and code compliance was critical to the approval process with the Public Design Commission. Integrating the engineering approach with the aesthetic goals of the work resulted in a process of curve adjustment until a free-flowing gesture was perfectly blended with the resolution of natural forces resolving to the below grade assembly.
ARTIST Local Projects + UAP
PROJECT Big Button Sculpture
LOCATION Garment District, NYC, USA
CLIENT Garment District Alliance (GDA)
YEAR 2022
Garment District, Big Button Sculpture
Garment District, Big Button Sculpture
Image Credit: Alexandre Ayer / @DiversityPics
C-Wall Mark Hagen
Mark Hagen brings his unique artistic vision to the newly renovated 17th floor at Houlihan Lokey’s NY headquarters. Hagen’s artwork goes beyond form alone and engages viewers in conversation and ignites curiosity. His sculptures, installations, and paintings perfectly combine control and chance, blending practicality with beauty, often evoking references to geological times and ancient civilizations.
’C-Wall’ is the centerpiece behind the main reception desk on the 17thfloor conference center. Inspired by Japanese wave-dissipating concrete blocks, the artwork symbolizes stability amidst the chaos, echoing the core values of the client team’s brand: strength, fortitude, and innovation. Composed of modular units arranged vertically onto an aluminum frame, the screen disrupts visual continuity, inviting viewers to engage their imaginations as they navigate the interplay between concealment and revelation. This sculpture seamlessly integrates with its surroundings, becoming both seen and seen-through.
Beginning with a curatorial-led artist selection process and visioning, the screen spans approximately 17 feet wide by 8 feet 5 inches tall, creating a high impact first impression of the overall assembly. The work embodies strength, trust, and innovation, establishing a lasting legacy within the newly transformed headquarters.
Repetitive detailing was developed at the base and ceiling conditions with unique modules that account for the sequencing needs of concealing an inner structural rod. Half-modules in an alternating pattern cap the upper and lower bands with a delicate procedure of lifting and setting that allowed for as minimal a gap possible and an appearance of the work continuing past the confides of the floor-to-ceiling space.
ARTIST Mark Hagen
PROJECT C-Wall
LOCATION New York, NY, USA
CLIENT Gensler, New York
YEAR 2023
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To See Yourself in Nature Huntington Beach Central Park
Sited along a walking path next to the park’s Secret Garden, this installation of etched brass and stainless steel responds to the strong character of the architecture of the nearby library and its integrated fountains. The element is scaled and sited in careful relationship to pathways, sightlines, and an adjacent Secret Garden.
“The installation invites park visitors to explore and reflect upon the natural wonders of the cherished 300-acre Central Park and its anchor, the Huntington Beach Central Library designed by renowned architect Dion Neutra and Associates. The installation is “… art as mirror held up to nature… to see yourself in nature…” inviting visitors to connect with empathy to the energy of the natural world in the park and each other.”
—Artist/designer, Matt Niebuhr
The crescent shapes, made of stainless steel and etched brass are mounted to a single foundation beneath an organic oval shaped surface with stone selected and placed to invite a place for contemplation.
Scope on this project began at stages of technical design development where a model from the architecture team was translated to a buildable system with consideration of drainate, panel seaming, transport, and installation. The work had to be carefully hoisted from strong points above integrated at moments of internal continuous structure.
ARTIST Huntington Beach
PROJECT To See Yourself in Nature
LOCATION Huntington Beach, CA, USA
CLIENT RDG Planning • Design
YEAR 2023
Luci ICRAVE
In a collaboration with award-winning design and innovation studio ICRAVE, this project developed a 2-story digital art sculpture for a residential lobby interior in New York. With concept design by the Manhattan-based design studio, this large-scale artwork titled Luci, is comprised of two curved stainless-steel rails, each rail supporting 600 sq ft of custom designed projection fabric, capturing 3D mapped projection content curated by Brooklyn based digital artists Optical Animal.
As manufacturing partner and design-build delivery team for the project, UAP worked closely with ICRAVE to explore the complex fabrication methods and material solutions for this unique application. The resulting ‘ribbon’ model emerges from a sub-cellar pit and extends up into the second story atrium, wrapping a staircase before laminating itself along the focal wall at the building entry level. The work is fluid and undulating, offering a new visual experience through its expressive form and engaging animations.
Sampling studies that began with available stock materials that are able to catch dual sided projections resolved into a highly custom parametrically driven unit infill creating a continuous surface from many parts that morphs to the unique geometry.
DESIGNER ICRAVE + UAP
PROJECTION Optical Animal
ARTWORK TITLE Luci
PROJECT 21 West End Avenue Lobby
LOCATION New York, NY, USA
CLIENT Dermot Company
YEAR 2018
ACADEMIC + COMPETITION
WORK
DESIGN STUDIO III
URBAN
MIX
SOCIAL HOUSING — Astoria, Queens
The arrangement of living units aim to maximize communal living space outside of the private interior of the apartment blocks. The narrowness of the circulation corridor allows for natural light and ventilation to exist on both sides of each unit.
Splitting entrances along the edge of the inner courtyard and facing balconies toward this inner court, the experience from within these apartment units is one of heightened activity due to the visual adjacency to these public core spaces.
Overlapping and cantilevering volumes of the apartment blocks allows for full use of the ground floor of the site and stacking allows for a terracing of roof occupancy
OFFICE OF THE FUTURE COMPETITION
The NAIOP Office of the Future competition is a national competition that challenges teams to design the office building of the future. Teams of professionals from a variety of disciplines are challenged to design an office building for the year 2030 considering trends, advances, and opportunities to incorporate into their designs and the latest building science data to create innovation.
The team assembled at Hickock Cole worked together to envision a building with as many integrated passive strategies possible, creating a functional and comfortable space that responds to its environmental impacts while serving the needs of the building’s user group.
Competitors were asked to provide site plan views and perspective sketches that highlighted future building features, materials, technology and trends, and hard cost budget estimates. Selected as one of four winners nationally, Hickok Cole Architects presented its vision of the Office Building of the Future at NAIOP’s 2012 Development Conference. The design features a double skin where the inner, weathertight surface wraps the conditioned tenant spaces, while the outer dynamic shading layer uses an electroactive polymer activated by the sun. The building embraces technological advances including a prefabricated modular structural system, a buoyancy HVAC system, and on-site power generation technologies. Other features include generous natural light, a dedicated amenities floor, and an automated parking system.
CHRISTOPHER TESTA
christopher.testa1@gmail.com
860.280.6206
New York, NY