MAGAZINE
DESIGN | ARCHITECTURE
PROJECTING CONFIDENCE
Text & Layout by Bill Indursky
Photography by MacBethPhoto.com
Video by Adrenaline Studios
January 27, 2016
W
ithin one of America’s fastest growing master-designed communities, three sets of artists worked together to provide a single way find point among 11-square miles of new residential and commercial construction. The Lake Nona Community (http://www.lakenona.com), a Tavistock Group (http://tavistockdevelopment.com) development near Orlando, Florida, recently unveiled The Beacon, a 60-foot tall water tower-like installation modeled on a stethoscope and made of aluminum panels featuring a multimedia experience including: music, light, video, interactive elements and performances.
The structure, designed and executed by Florida-based public artist JEFRË, New York-based director/visual artist Michael Counts (http://countsprojects.com), and creative technology firm 3-Legged Dog (3LD) Art and Technology Center (http://www.3ldnyc.org) is meant to draw people to the growing community.
“Over 62 million visitors come to Orlando each year and possibly their first and last view, as they fly in and out of Orlando International Airport, will be of The Beacon at Lake Nona,” says artist JEFRË who is also an Orlando resident.
The tower structure is wrapped in high-definition video projections, creating cinematic video artwork that will bring the structure to life each night. The Beacon features a rotating array of sculptural video concepts that will change periodically.
The Beacon is part of a larger permanent installation by the artists which spans the length of an Orlando parking garage with a 264-foot-long metallic wall perforated with binary code and embellished with LED lights called Code Wall.
“We are taking a parking garage–typically one of the least aesthetically pleasing visual elements of a development–and are turning it into a leading edge, technology-oriented centerpiece,” says Lake Nona President, Jim Zboril.
Both The Beacon and Code Wall reference health care and technology influenced by the proximity of the large medical community, as well as health issues within the artist’s own life.
The first phase of the Lake Nona Town Center, opened last winter and features restaurants, an office building and two hotels, a Marriott Residence Inn and Courtyard by Marriott. A next phase is under design and expected to include additional office and restaurants, a cinema, a fitness center and retail. At build out, the Town Center will include more than one million square feet of shopping and entertainment options contiguous to Lake Nona Medical City.