Robert W. Baird
The 23rd floor of Robert W Baird's offices in Chicago features 8 conference rooms, a board room and more than 40 offices. That's a pretty big "canvas" to work with. The solution to the space was a rich blending of different mediums including three dimensional work, contemporary artwork and photography.
In the reception area, a 3D mosaic made of copper, steel encaustic and wood is held together with magnets and provides a dramatic focal point. In addition, a mixed media on canvas piece featuring a sail boat image created from a Wall Street Journal adds a whimsical touch.
In the board room a large fused glass on copper sculpture was commissioned. In the eight conference rooms contemporary artwork featured a mix of medium including acrylic on plexi, encaustic on wood panel, several canvases, metal on paper and mixed media on paper. Interior corridors displayed a variety of nature photographs.
One of the biggest challenges was finding a solution to bring life to a 90’ exterior corridor. To do so, I incorporated three groups of three oversized pieces that were very distinct, yet complimented each other. These consisted of architectural pieces, abstract photography and abstract mixed media all framed in plexi with stand off hardware. The scale, color and dimension of these works created some much needed visual interest and conveyed a very clean, contemporary image.
Installation photographs by Churchill and Klehr.