TUALATIN, OR… The Vermont high-rise luxury apartments in Los Angeles are now home to a dramatic new work of art that incorporates a dual-purpose Cascade Architectural Fabricoil® coiled wire fabric system.

For this project, the Fabricoil system serves as both a canvas for the artwork and a façade for The Vermont’s parking garage.

The artwork – entitled “Los Angeles Opens its Heart of Compassion” – was completed in January 2015. Cliff Garten of Cliff Garten Studio (based in Venice, CA) creates architecturally integrated sculptures for urban places. His sculpture captures the past and future of this densely populated corner of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

A 20-foot-tall, suspended three-dimensional sculpture is the centerpiece. It is made of 100 laser-cut aluminum “lotus petals” extending outward from a steel armature. The sculpture is framed by the undulating 75’ x 45’ Fabricoil system that itself is a striking component of the overall design. LED lighting showcases the art from the front, back and sides.

“The sculpture is bathed in an intense white light, while the screen and its corresponding line drawing move through a light show of rich changing colors,” says Garten. “The swells of color captured by the curving screen deepen in relation to the amount of natural daylight.”

Garten also says, “this [Fabricoil] material immediately intrigued me. It had a unique quality of capturing light and being translucent.”

Fabricoil systems look and perform like traditional woven metal mesh, but have a far lower installed cost. Fabricoil architectural coiled wire fabric is manufactured in a wide variety of weaves, metals, gauges and finishes – all suitable for both interior and exterior applications.

For The Vermont project, Cliff Garten Studio utilized a 5/16” 16-gauge stainless steel Fabricoil system in powder-coated brite pearl grey finish. The Clamp engineered attachment system, designed by Cascade Architectural, was selected by Cliff Garten and the structural engineer to attach the Fabricoil system to the building.

The lower installed cost is made possible by the unique design of the Fabricoil material: interlocked strands of wire shaped into a coil form. This spiraling imparts it with structure and spring-like characteristics that allow for greater degrees of tensions and compression without permanent deformation. The systems are much lighter and have reduced structural embed requirements.

Architects and designers are embracing Fabricoil coiled wire fabric systems because they provide color and texture, and react beautifully to light – and because the systems enable even projects with modest budgets to achieve unique design visions.

The Vermont is located in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. Garten says the use of the lotus blossom image was meant to reflect a recurrent theme in Korean art.

About Cascade Architectural: Cascade Architectural is a division of Cascade Coil Drapery, Inc., based in Tualatin, OR, the world’s leading manufacturer of coiled wire fabrics for a wide variety of applications. Cascade Architectural provides Fabricoil™ architectural coiled wire fabric systems and their engineered attachment systems used by architects and designers around the world. In addition, Cascade Architectural also provides GuardianCoil® systems, engineered for security gates. Environmentally sustainable and made in the USA, Cascade Architectural’s coiled wire fabric has also been scientifically proven to save energy and increase thermal comfort when used as window treatments or exterior shades and scrims. For more information, visit: http://www.cascadecoil.com.