Hyannis, MA
Art Consultant:
Wilkins Art Associates, Inc., Waltham, MA
Architect:
TRO Jung/Brannen, Newton, MA
Coastal Atmospheres Windows
Mugar Building Corridor
various sizes: approx. 120 sf total
German and French mouthblown glass, domestic rolled glass, hand-pressed lenses, dichroic glass, lead and solder with a protective glazing of tempered glass.
Coastal Atmospheres is located in the corridor connecting previously existing hospital facilities with the new Mugar Building addition. The windows along this corridor are deeply recessed into a thickened exterior wall. This added thickness allows the wall surface to be sloped and molded into an exciting three-dimensional surface that reveals only a few windows at a time.
The stained glass designed for these windows acknowledges this imaginative linear sequence, often echoing the sloping angles and planes within the wall. A gently curved “horizon” line within the stained glass connects the uppermost windows. Deeper, more saturated color generally occurs in the four lower windows which screen views to the utilitarian area beyond while presenting impressionistic and whimsical aquarium-like scenes. Darker color graduates into brighter, airier color in the twelve upper windows with their abstract and transparent imagery.
Abstract though Coastal Atmospheres may be, wafting focal points provide opportunities for each viewer to discover their own narrative. Each window is conceived as a self-contained element, while the overall stained glass design implies a three-dimensional vista that is partially glimpsed in successive windows. As day becomes night and the sun transits through the seasons, clouds, mists, sunrises, squalls, promontories, boats, fogs and lighthouses appear and recede. Although only two or three windows are visible at once, unseen windows are subtly announced by the glowing, sculptural wall surfaces surrounding them.
The glass palette is composed primarily of blues and blue-greens accented with ambers, yellows and pale violets. Lighter colors sparkle with a crystalline transparency that permits views to the landscape and sky beyond. Morning sun often projects light and color into the corridor in ever-changing patterns while filmy French opal glasses waft across the upper windows. Hand-pressed lenses add interest and sparkle that grab tiny, inverted versions of the view beyond. The flash of dichroic glass details flickers as one moves past
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