Great Glazing: New York Middle School 114

Photos by Etienne Frossard

"We had to create 20 individual panels of glass, each with two unique colors, with an abrupt change between the colors. We were using a spot color process so we had to create blended color palettes to achieve two tones of light and dark. Because all the layers of color are linked, if you pushed on one, it pushed on everything else."
—Spencer Raymond, project manager, General Glass International

The basics: New York City Middle School 114 features a large multicolored public art glass installation from artist Mary Temple. Temple's vision for the project was to print bands of colors that appear to be interrupted by the shadow of trees, even though there is no window or light source in the lobby that could result in these shadows, according to a General Glass International release. Temple initially tried to achieve the effect with ceramic tiles. However, because the firing process changes colors, she couldn't get the hues she was looking for, according to the release. Digitally printed decorative glass provided a solution. "I realized that glass gave me the opportunity to play with transparency and translucency, and as long as it could be tempered, it would be tough enough for this application," she said in the release. The piece pushed the boundaries of what is possible to print on glass, according to Temple and officials from GGI.

The players: Artist, Mary Temple; project commission, NYC School Construction Authority and City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program; glass fabricator and installation supervisor, General Glass International; installer, Raymond Glass.

The glass: 370-inch by 108-inch unified image made up of 20 panels of ¼-inch tempered glass, digitally printed with two unique colors. Because the shadow pattern extends across all of the panels, the joints between panels had to line up perfectly, according to the release.