On Campus
A three-story public art installation connects the old and new at Rutgers School of Law–Camden
Striking glass façade created by a Rutgers alumnus provides community space where faculty and students mingle
In designing the east building of Rutgers School of Law–Camden, an inventive planning team found inspiration in what might have been a mere structural detail: the passageway connecting the new building with the 1970s original across the street. Light streams through the walkway’s three-story glass façade onto cheerful student and faculty lounges that sit along it, at the intersection of the old and the new.
“We wanted the Fifth Street Bridge to be a lively community space, and not just a walkway. It was crucial to make the original and the new building one culture, so that everyone could share in both,” noted Rayman Solomon, dean of Rutgers School of Law–Camden. “The student lounge on the Fifth Street Bridge really is the heart of the school and very much like the Main Street archetype, where faculty and students meet and mingle.’’
The visual centerpiece of this crossroads is a 1,200 square-foot glasswork installation set in the center of the law school’s north wall, with abstract shapes in vivid tones of blue, orange, pink, and yellow stretching across its 29 window panes. Each of the panels weighs between 250 and 300 pounds and is made of hand-cut antique glass.
The striking, several-ton installation was designed by the New Jersey-based artist, Mac Adams, who earned his MFA from Rutgers in 1969. The piece was manufactured by the 142-year-old Derix Glass Studios in Germany, following a two-year selection process prompted by a state mandate, which requires that up to 1.5 percent of construction funding for state buildings be allocated for works of public art.
The Arts Inclusion Act of 1978 leaves the choice of painting, sculpture, mosaic, terrazzo floor, or landscape art to the discretion of the art selection committee formed for each building project, with guidance from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Tom Moran, senior program officer for artists’ services with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, met initially with Rutgers staff in 2005 to help them identify areas that would provide the most prominent display of public art.
“We viewed the glass facade of the Fifth Street Bridge as a unique feature of the project, and so we decided to do something there,’’ Solomon recalled. “We chose the north wall, facing traffic traveling into New Jersey over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, because it can be seen as a campus gateway from that direction. The College of Arts and Sciences had already installed a large public sculpture on Fourth Street as a gateway from the south. Both are designed to connect the campus with the larger community.’’
After committee members zeroed in on the bridge, Moran presented images of 20 possible artists for consideration. The committee picked Adams based on a watercolor he provided that was “bright, beautiful, abstract, and very interesting – a very bold statement,’’ as Solomon put it.
“Mac designed it so it doesn’t obscure views of the outside,’’ he added. “When you’re sitting in the faculty lounge, you can look up and see the sky and clouds behind it. It’s quite stunning, as the piece changes in color and intensity depending on the natural light.’’ At night it is illuminated by interior lights.
Adams said he created a modern design, because he thought it would be appropriate for “a young law school.’’ He called the choice of glass as a medium a nod to tradition as well, however. Early on in the discussions, one of the building committee members had spoken admiringly of the stained glass at the University of Oxford, an academic institution fast approaching its millennium.
“What I didn’t want to do were stereotypical law images, like those young ladies with blindfolds over their eyes holding scales. I thought that it had to be an abstract image, but one that had meaning for the place,’’ said Adams, who describes himself as a narrative artist.