Colorado State University Fort Collins
Diagnostic Medicine Center

Verve
David Griggs; Denver, Colorado
Budget: $265,000
Installed May, 2009

David Griggs is the artist selected to work with the design team on the Diagnostic Medicine Center.  Works of art are integrated into the architectural features of the building in such a way that they have a heightened presence and carry an embodied meaning.

The public art design was inspired by the activities that take place in building. Expressed in four main elements, the artwork takes an environmental approach to representing Veterinary Sciences. The elements are: the atrium terrazzo floor, the interior “egg” glass curtain wall, the exterior “link” glass, and the atrium trellis planters.

The designs for these elements have a wide variety of influences, but all of them were inspired by activities and images associated with the Diagnostic Medicine Center. The terrazzo floor design was inspired by the exotic and beautiful formations created in petri dishes.  The interior egg glass curtain was made by sandblasting, silk-screening and painting directly on glass.  The subtle monochromatic designs will result in ever-changing evocative forms in the “link” passageway between buildings. Emerging from a large crescent shaped floor planter, the trellises will add to the representations of growth in the atrium space, as well as incorporating a vertical element in this tall narrow space.