Raleigh's shimmer wall draws attention

RALEIGH -- For years, people have been trying to figure out the secret to creating successful public art in Raleigh. It appears they now have an answer: Make it shimmer!

The shimmer wall, a 9,284-square-foot piece of art that adorns the McDowell Street side of the new convention center downtown, is receiving rave reviews from both art connoisseurs and philistines.

"It's really become a symbol for Raleigh," said Beth Yerxa, a member of Raleigh's Arts Commission. "The piece is very approachable and fun."

"It's pretty cool," said Zach Ashton, 18, who gazes at the shimmer wall during smoke breaks from his screen-printing job on South Harrington Street. "It's nice to look at instead of all the construction."

Made up of 79,464 light and dark aluminum squares, the wall depicts an oak tree that changes shape and disappears as the squares flap in the wind. The piece looks high-tech, but it's not.

"It's a completely low-tech thing," said Thomas Sayre, principal with the Raleigh architecture firm Clearscapes, which created the piece. "It's just the wind."

The 4-inch squares of aluminum hang on louvers in 4-foot-square grids, enabling them to ripple in the breeze above the 80,000 cars that pass by daily on McDowell Street. If the shimmer wall were not in place, passersby would be forced to look at a wall covering up the convention center's air-conditioning system.

Clearscapes got the idea for the wall from Ned Kahn, an artist from northern California who has installed similar pieces around the country, including two in downtown Charlotte. He collaborated on the design.

Raleigh's shimmer wall is unique because it includes an image of an oak tree -- Raleigh's nickname is the City of Oaks -- and because it will be backlit at night by 56 light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, fixtures that can be programmed to flash and display more than a million different colors.

The LEDs won't be turned on until the convention center's grand opening Sept. 5. Steve Schuster, Clearscapes project manager for the convention center, said the LEDs mean the shimmer wall will be able to display Carolina Hurricanes colors one night, and different shades of green on St. Patrick's Day.

"The possibilities really are endless," he said.

Schuster acknowledged that the shimmer wall could become a rare bright spot in what he called Raleigh's "challenged history" with public art.

Two years ago, Raleigh officials rejected a hydro-electronic abstract sculpture planned for Fayetteville Street that was designed by Jaume Plensa, an internationally known Spanish artist. The decision led businessman Jim Goodmon to withdraw his offer to pay $2.5 million to help fund the project.

Eleven years before the Plensa debacle, the city was criticized for installing the Time + Light Tower in the Capital Boulevard median just north of the Fairview Road ramp. The 40-foot tower, which is studded with refractive glass panels and cost taxpayers $51,100, was called an "an oil derrick with mirrors" by Tom Fetzer, Raleigh's mayor at the time.

"I think the arts gods have smiled upon us," Schuster said.

Schuster's willingness to call the shimmer wall "art" is noteworthy. Just a year ago, Sayre, his fellow Clearscapes principal, was referring to the wall as a "design element" because the term "public art" had become too radioactive in Raleigh.

Even if an anti-shimmer faction does emerge, it won't be able to call the project a taxpayer boondoggle, since no public funds were used to build it. Durham-based Cree Inc., which manufactures semiconductors for LED lights, donated $1 million to build the wall.

"It looks even cooler because someone donated it to us," Raleigh City Councilman Philip Isley said. "It's amazing how pretty things are when taxpayers don't pay for them."