Andy Cao, FAAR 2002 writes:
We would like to share with distinguished Fellows and colleagues CAO PERROT's latest work: our first built park for Swarovski Kristallwelten Expansion (including master plan, park design, and art installation) just completed in April 2015.
Please see attached a short film by Swarovski, “Engineering Poetry,” documenting the making of Kristallwelten Expansion in Wattens, Austria. Crowning feature of the 7.5 hectare park is a monumental Crystal Cloud (drifting over a mirror pool) with 800,000 Swarovski crystals covering an area of 1,400 square meter -- the length of a football field.
The Expansion marks the 120th anniversary of Swarovski’s founding in Tyrol and the 20th anniversary of Swarovski Crystal Worlds.
Warmest wishes,
Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot
Nicholas Blechman, FAAR 2012, has been named the new creative director of the New Yorker. He had been art director of the New York Times Book Review. He started his new job on July 6.
The Austin American-Statesman and the Austin Chronicle have named Margo Sawyer, FAAR 1987, 2015 Visual Artist of the Year. Her installation Synchronicity of Color, was inspired by remnants of her house after it collapsed in 2013. In May she was named 2015 State Three-Dimensional Visual Artist by the state of Texas. Synchronicity of Color is on display at Discovery Green in Houston. Sawyer lives in Elgin, Texas and teaches at the University of Texas at Austin.
Washington Canal Park in Washington, D.C. is one of six finalists in the 2015 ULI Urban Open Land Space Award Competition. The OLIN Studio, Laurie Olin, FAAR 1974, RAAR 1990, 2008 and David Rubin, FAAR 2012, principal of Land Collective were involved.David Rubin talks about the design in a short video. The prize will be awarded in early October at the meeting of the Urban Land Institute.
Architect Ron Dirsmith, FAAR 1960, has published a new book about his firm’s long working relationship with Hugh Hefner. Inside Hefner’s Pleasure-Domes: Designing Xanadu for an American Icon is available as an ebook or paperbound.