Background:

Overlooking Valley Forge Park, 1500 Liberty Ridge is a three-story office building set in a water-landscaped setting. The owner, Liberty Property Trust, was founded by the late Willard Rouse, an influential and highly regarded developer in the Philadelphia area. In accordance with Mr. Rouse's expressed wishes the building was recently renovated, though only ten years old.

Challenges:

• Change the “residential look” produced by the existing public-spaces artwork — randomly sized prints of the Valley Forge area — to create an environment that would be attention-getting and smartly urban in character.
• Use art to give the building a unique visual personality and, thereby, a distinctive competitive edge in the corporate office marketplace.

Results:

MkM sought out art from this country and abroad, searching for works in a variety of media that would be diverse in approach and yet would have an overall coherence. Along with the client, the architect and the interior designer, we reviewed the work of more than 80 artists.

The building areas we had to work with comprised six elevator lobbies, two entrances, and a patio overlooking Valley Forge Mountain. Consistent with the client’s desire for a measure of unity on each floor, we made the work of a single artist dominant in each public space, as demonstrated by the installation photos shown here. (These photos, it should be noted, are a sampling of the work installed, not a complete review.) The completed project has not only eloquently achieved the client’s objectives, it has won recognition for the overall excellence of the installed art.