Dallas tower’s reflections roast sculpture garden

Another glass tower’s reflective glare is causing problems. A few months ago a mirror glass tower in London, U.K. had to be modified in order to stop it reflecting the sun’s rays down to the street causing car parts to melt and shop doormats to singe.

But for two years in Dallas, the Museum Tower, a 42-storey condominium has been upsetting the arts community because it directs the sun’s rays directly down into a sculpture garden, ruining the artistic effects. The sculpture garden is enclosed by buildings and covered with a glass roof that was carefully designed by international architect Renzo Piano with Arup engineers with a metal screen above it that has egg-shaped apertures to create a diffuse, filtered light inside the court. But since the condominium tower has been beaming sunlight down into the court, it ruins the effect and is reportedly roasting the shrubbery in the garden.

Recently a team led by REX Architecture and Front has come up with a new scheme to solve the problem. They propose building a giant 122-metre kinetic structure across from the tower that would block the rays. The structure looks something like a ferris wheel with attached “blossoms” that would track the sun and move with it during the day.

The museum is reported to have rejected the option because it takes up space that had been allotted for artist’s housing. Some say the condominium owners should add shading structures to the gleaming tower where it faces the sun.

Click here to read an article in Gizmodo.

And another article from August in Bloomberg News, click here.