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Pikes Peak 6-12-13
Teller County, Colorado • Volume 52, Issue 24
June 12, 2013
75 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourtellercountynews.com
Cloud City introduces Green Box By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com A hullabaloo and yowzah! experience for the residents of Green Mountain Falls, the 20-ton sculpture with 16 modules is guaranteed to be the biggest thing that ever hit town. A gift from the town’s benefactor, Christian Keesee, the aluminum sculpture launches the Green Box Arts Festival, which begins June 23. Founder of the festival in 2007, Keesee continues to surprise audiences with a rich variety of culture, including theater, art and sculpture, dance, literature, the culinary arts, photography and jewelry. But Cloud City is the ultimate, to date. “The sculpture reflects what the clouds look
Assembly for the 20-ton, 16-module sculpture, is a three-day process for the crew that hauled the “Cloud City” sculpture from the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan to Green Mountain Falls. The sculpture, by Tomas Saraceno, is part of the Green Box Arts Festival, whose founder and owner of the aluminum sculpture is Christian Keesee, a part-time resident of the mountain community. The festival is from June 23 to July 3, and the piece will be on display until July 13. Photo by Pat Hill
like,” said Graham Stewart, architect for the project who traveled with the piece from New York City to Green Mountain Falls. Eight full-size semis, two modules each, carried the clouds into town the week of June 3. Visitors are invited to meander in the interactive piece through the platforms and staircases to view the landscape from each of the 12 x 12-foot aluminum modules. “The piece reflects the environment from all different angles,” Stewart said. The sculpture is by Tomas Saraceno of Argentina. “Saraceno pushed the limits of the uses of materials, takes them to a different level,” Stewart said. “Cloud City” is free and open to the public from 1 to 7 p.m. during the festival June 23 to July 3, with an extension for viewing until July 13. For visitors not able to maneuver the platforms, there is a virtual tour available at the Green Box campus office on Lake Street. This year’s festival artists include the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, folk band Haunted Wind Chimes, fiddler Kyle Dillingham, dance performers Keigwin + Company and Pulitzer Prize winner Blake Bailey. The entire schedule is available at www. greenboxarts.org.
Capitol Dome project links to Teller County By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com With gold mined in Teller County, the Capitol Dome in Denver is being restored with a donation of 72 ounces of gold from the Cripple Creek & Victor Mining Co. According to Jane Mannon, community affairs manager for CC&V, the price of gold at the time of the donation, September 2011, was $1,500 an ounce. “They send the pure gold bars to Italy where they make the gold leaf,” Mannon said. “There is nobody in the United States who makes gold leaf anymore.” The project includes removing most of the copper and gold elements from the building, which have been damaged from more than 100 years of weather, including the freeze-thaw cycle of Colorado climate. “We are repairing the plaster under the gold dome to better support the watertight system that will create the new copper and gold dome on the Capitol,” said Chris Derington, restoration superintendent with GH Phipps Construction. The Capitol, an architectural landmark built in 1908, was adorned with gold donated by past owners of the same mine in Teller County. Currently covered with a white shrink wrap plastic, the lower and upper drums have been sandblasted to remove all of the previous layers of paint. Three coats of high-performance paint have been applied, Derington said. “All of the windows from the upper portion of the building have been removed and sent off site to be stripped of paint, repainted and reinstalled as the scaffold is being removed from the building,” he said. In a ceremony at 11:45 a.m. June 18, the gold is scheduled to be turned over to Gov. John Hickenlooper. According to Mannon, CC & V employees will gather in a line on the Capitol stairs before the ceremony.
The Colorado Capitol building in Denver is wrapped in scaffolding and covered with scrim, the white shrink plastic, in preparation for a coat of gold. Gold from Cripple Creek & Victor Mining will be turned over to Gov. John Hickenlooper during a ceremony at the Capitol on June 18. Photo by Pat Hill Application of the gold leaf is scheduled to begin in August and is expected to take several months. “Most of it is gold leaf in a roll 65 feet long,” Mannon said. The last phase of the restoration is sandblasting and painting the base of the drum, repairing and reinstalling the windows. The Dome continues on Page 14
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The tension ring of the Capitol dome area. The copper and gold have been removed and the dome is currently being prepared for the application of new materials. Courtesy photo provided by the GH Phipps construction company