In late 2023 I was commissioned for a fantastic project to create a new monumental work for the City of Mesa, Arizona’s new City Hall building. I started by asking myself the question “What is a City Hall for?”. It’s a place where people connect with each other, where members of government gather to administer their duties and, where residents of that city come together to meet each other, and crucially, where the public and private mix: City Hall is the rare place where government and citizens mix, where silos break down, and real engagement occurs. This was the first driving force in the design I developed.

Secondly, the representatives of the City of Mesa that I met with prioritized transparency as a principle of government and emphasized that both the building and the sculpture should express this quality.

My response was this work, titled ‘Convergence.’ It is composed of two separate forms — one standing, one suspended, whose tips come within a few inches of each other. The forms, while towering, have a significant amount of negative space, allowing those outside the building to see in, through the work, to the interior of the building, while also not blocking view lines for those inside the building to Mesa’s skyline outside.

The grand unveiling took place in November, 2024.