Assignment

During the construction of the brand new US Bank Stadium, the home of the Minnesota Vikings, the area right in front of the main entrance was named Medtronic Plaza. Medtronic reached out to multiple design firms about building a sculpture in the plaza, as a gift to the community.

From the get-go, it was evident that the sculpture in such a prominent location had to be impactful. The design team decided to go outside of the RFP requirements, which asked for something of modest size and complexity, instead offering something that would not be dominated by the massive scale of US Bank Stadium. The final sculpture creates its impact by its shape, materiality, illumination, and size, in that order.

We took the inspiration for the shape from the symbol of the Vikings Team – the Gjallarhorn. The ribbons represent the spirit of progress and partnership that together lead our community to a better future. The outer surface of the ribbons is finished with the colors of the Minnesota Vikings – purple and gold. The inner surface is a stainless steel curved mirror reflecting itself and the surroundings multiple times in unpredictable ways, expanding the shape of the sculpture to infinity.

Development

The sculpting was done using parametric modeling in 3ds max. Parametric modeling allowed us to come up with many variations of the design and get the project under budget in just a few days.

The Vikings fans in the renderings are all Alliiance employees (some are Packers fans in disguise) who I photographed one sunny day.