45° N, 072° 6’ W
monument concrete wall: 10 × 30 ft. (120 × 360 in.)
bus entry concrete wall: 17.5 × 32 ft. (210 × 384 in.)
soft secondary concrete wall: 17 × 32 ft. (204 × 384 in.)
commercial building lobby wood installation: 5.8 × 25.2 ft. (69 5/8 × 302 3/8 in.)
main building lobby wood installation: 5.9 × 171 ft. (70 13/16 × 2051 7/8 in.)
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Every U.S. Land Port of Entry serves as a gateway into the United States. Working with the design team at HGA Architects, artists Elizabeth Billings and Andrea Wasserman created a series of integrated artworks that together welcome travelers to the United States and to the state of Vermont.
The essence of the Vermont landscape was the inspiration for 45° N, 072° 6’ W, an artwork composed of both interior and exterior elements that provide visual texture to the port facility through site-specific patterning. The interior artwork includes a continuous installation of live-edge maple slabs above both the processing counter and officer work area in the main port building, and above the processing counter in the commercial inspection building. The vertical orientation and seemingly random spacing of the maple slabs, cut from trees harvested near the artists’ Vermont homes, evoke the depth of the Vermont woods. The artwork on the port’s façade consists of four artist-designed, pre-cast concrete panels: two on the main port building and two on the commercial inspection building. The abstract patterns on these panels suggest the density of a forest, as well as the drill marks from regional granite quarries. Collectively, the artwork echoes the local landscape and contributes to the port’s distinctly Vermont identity.
- John Ahearn (b. 1951, Binghamton, New York) and Rigoberto Torres (b. 1960, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico)1997
- John Ahearn (b. 1951, Binghamton, New York) and Rigoberto Torres (b. 1960, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico)1997
