Boston Site-Seeing, the USGlass Way

I headed up to Dulles International Airport Wednesday afternoon, on my way to Boston for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Convention. I’m at Dulles a lot, and I always enjoy watching the progress on their construction of the new underground train lines and walkways that will better connect the terminals. Wednesday I happened to linger for a few minutes outside the security checkpoint to watch the installation of the last of a series of (comparatively) small skylights. A number of lites of glass were propped up on the roof—I suppose you can call it the roof, although the concrete surface with its scattered pyramids of glass was several feet below my viewing area. I watched a crane slowly lifting … well, presumably the skylight or pieces of it that would fill the large opening the three orange-vested workers stood around. I never saw the load make it to its destination. I decided it would be better if I didn’t dawdle too long or snap photos to share with you, readers, as security had already thoroughly checked my bags and I was hoping they wouldn’t do the same to my person.

So it was off to Boston, with my site-seeing already begun.

You see, last week’s call for unique projects in the Boston area hadn’t gone unanswered. Mike Gainey of Azon USA was kind enough to point out a unique and artistic work at Brown University, which Mapquest tells me is about an hour outside of that city. The Lines of Sight Installation is comprised of 140 windows. According to information from the school, each unit is made up of hundreds of thousands of glass elements—made of slightly green-tinted glass or crystal-clear glass, tiny magnifying lenses and small mirrors and prismatic beads—interspersed with about a half-million clear glass distillation beads. Small rectangles of glass, resembling microscope slides, were hand-engraved with phrases of poetry or prose, the authors’ names and their birth year. Finally, the outer layer of glass was sandblasted with the faint image of two hands, one on either side of the bridge. Mike reports that Solar Seal, a commercial glass fabricator in Boston, made the IG units that artist Diane Samuels worked on.

"I have not seen the glass on the jobsite but did in the factory and it was really fun to see something so artistic out of what we do every day,” Mike told me.

It seemed like such an interesting project I just had to share that background here.

While I didn’t get too much opportunity for any touristy trips in Boston—days jam-packed with seminars and booth appointments kept me hopping—there were two buildings that used glass in ways worth noting.

On Friday night Oldcastle Glass hosted a lovely reception at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter. One of the top ten sustainable buildings in the nation, as selected by AIA, the venue typically provides the city’s “underserved youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in the arts.” On Friday night it had been transformed into a musical and colorful site for industry networking. I’m mildly embarrassed to say that I did in fact text a photo that night to my coworker Penny Stacey, editor of sister publication AGRR/glassBYTEs, not of the artwork decorating the walls but of the windshields that formed the railing along the loft-like second story. I knew Penny would approve of this mode of decorating.

The second building may seem like an obvious choice, but those of us in the combined USGlass/Glass Association of North America booth couldn’t help but comment on the appropriateness of the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center as the site for our glass-related activities. The glass-walled Skywalk, the hallway across the expo, provided a neat overview of the show. And the importance of daylighting clearly wasn’t lost on the construction team responsible for the new building. It was a neat venue, and I look forward to returning soon!