displays up and running

5forty design and Lyall Design Architects had been trying for about a year and a half to find a project to collaborate on and Lyall finally came up with the perfect opportunity. These display panels for Lockheed Martin needed to be designed, fabricated, and installed within 4 weeks. After getting the go-ahead and drawings from Lyall, it took about 3 weeks to design and build fixtures, weld the frames and posts, have aluminum skins laser cut, and get everything powder coated and then installed. The system consists of 2 units made up of 4 7′x7′ panels each. The panels are attached to hinges on the center posts so that they can be rotated through 180 degrees and each panel has a flat screen monitor on the outside, and a laptop controller stowed on the inside. The frames and skins of the panels are all aluminum. The skins are held on with nearly 700 button cap screws. The center posts are welded steel tube and plate and have bronze bearings on the hinges.

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This fountain was designed and fabricated for Woods Financial in Chesapeake, VA.  The 3″ diameter turned aluminum tubes fill with water that then cascades down their sides giving just the right amount of noise, with minimal splashing. The uplighting from the submersible lights is refracted by the ripples and creates mesmerizing patterns on the walls and ceiling of the room. The African mahogany and aluminum basin ties the design into the existing decor.

The completed fountain

5forty designed, assembled, and installed this wall art for an aviation consultancy in Northern Virginia. The design is based on the FAA airport diagram for Reagan National Airport in Arlington, VA. The client wanted a piece that was sufficiently abstract to not be instantly recognizable as being aviation related.  The transparent backing is made of Glass Green acrylic CNC routed and flame polished by Norva PLastics in Norfolk. The steel for the runways and terminal buildings was laser cut by Advanced Machine and Tooling in Virginia Beach. 5forty then patinated the steel and put it all together.

More pictures after the break.

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The design by 5forty design and Thom White, AIA, was selected by the Downtown Norfolk Council to be one of four Public Art Bicycle Racks to be installed in the Downtown district of Norfolk, Virginia. The DNC put out an RFP for four sculptural bike racks to be placed around the city to promote alternative forms of transportation, in anticipation of the 2010 arrival of the Tide light rail system. Our proposal speaks to both the nautical heritage of the port city and the future means of navigating the city by modes of transportation other than by car. The sculpture/bike racks are scheduled to be installed Spring 2010. Check out our proposal boards below!

Here’s a gallery of work from the last 5 years of 5forty. We’ll try to get some of these their own posts and galleries as time goes on.

The Cape Henry DNA sculpture was completed in September of 2007, but was previously unposted. Here it is in all of its glory. The DNA sculpture is made of laser-cut anodized aluminum sheet for the base pairs and machined aluminum rods representing the chemical bonds. The sculpture is 12 feet long and about 3 feet in diameter. It is comprised of approximately 5,000 parts and is suspended from a 7 foot square skylight over a stairwell. It took us most of a day working at the top of fully-extended 28′ ladders, to attach the custom anchors and raise the sculpture into position.