Weeks Before It's Scheduled to Open, Shining a Light Onto Main Street Garden

Light sculpture artist Leni Schwendinger and her team spent Monday evening downtown, programming the seasonal color schemes on the first of her installations on the site that, come November 5, will be the new Main Street Garden. The first of her SpectraScape structures is more or less complete: a pair...

By Patrick Michels

October 13, 2009

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Light sculpture artist Leni Schwendinger and her team spent Monday evening downtown, programming the seasonal color schemes on the first of her installations on the site that, come November 5, will be the new Main Street Garden.

The first of her SpectraScape structures is more or less complete: a pair of green glass panels, each bending at a 90-degree angle into a roof. Seen from the right angle, Schwendinger pointed out, the roofs form a "V" that echoes the modern shape of the old Statler Hilton across the street. The park will include five of these setups, each with seating underneath and, of course, a line of multicolored lights crawling along the top.

At 9:15 Monday night, Schwendinger said they'd just finished programming each of the four color schemes the installations will display over the course of a year, plus an all-white display that'll run for about 20 minutes each night at dusk. After that, she said, the light program will run clear on through till, you know, "whenever the bars close."

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