Lens Ceiling

The studio of James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA) created the precisely engineered and delicately realized Lens Ceiling for the special-proceedings courtroom of the Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona.

The special-proceedings courtroom functions as a secular temple, in which important civic rites are enacted. JCDA's ethereal ceiling fulfills key functional and symbolic needs for this courtroom, via an expert synthesis of engineering finesse and artistic expression.

A view of the sky from the special-proceedings courtroom was central to the architects' concept for the space. As an acoustic seal between the courtroom and the surrounding atrium was required, the design of the ceiling (both functionally and symbolically) was of critical importance.  A maximum allowable ceiling height for the courtroom precluded the ceiling being built at the top of the four-story drum, so preserving visual access to the rest of the volume of the drum above the ceiling became a focus of the design.

Lens Ceiling represents not only a realization of ideas that Carpenter's studio had been developing for many years, but also a very unusual synthesis of artwork, architecture, and functional components. In this sense, the ceiling is both art and machine.  Its creation would not have been feasible without the close collaboration of artist’s studio, the architects, client, consultants, fabricators, and contractors.

Carpenter's team built a complete, three-dimensional computer model of the structure to assist in their analysis. Lens Ceiling is suspended from the frame of the glass-clad drum that forms the special-proceedings courtroom. The frame's horizontal rings provide compression, and create extremely efficient structural tension, while using the gravity acting on the suspended glass as a stabilizer.

The central, lens-shaped area of the ceiling acts as a diffuser of the artificial light, while the clear perimeter provides views of the sky from the courtroom floor. The rolled glass pattern transforms the central area of the ceiling into a glowing, sparkling surface. The team’s understanding of structure made it possible for the artwork to capture the ephemeral qualities of light.

In addition to JCDA's close attention to engineering, Lens Ceiling resonates with historical and metaphorical meaning. The cylindrical shape of the courtroom, coupled with a technically wondrous dome (albeit inverted), immediately evoke the Pantheon in Rome. Whereas the dome and oculus of that ancient temple face skyward, like a colossal eye peering towards the heavens, JCDA's inverted dome gazes down upon the important civic proceedings that occur in the courtroom.

In a less directly referential sense, the delicate, suspended cable structure of Lens Ceiling describes a spherical form intersecting a horizontal plane, such as a bubble of air resting gently on a surface of water. The artwork is intended to reveal the unseen forces of nature, making these forces evident in the structure itself, and through the use of light. This tension between the delicacy of the structural web and the power of the primary forms that the web expresses is the source of the ceiling’s strength. It is an aesthetically alluring, intellectually engaging, and fittingly dignified artwork for everyone who visits the courthouse.