Denver Civic Center

Denver, Colorado

Kirkland created two artworks, Denver True and East-West, Source Point, for the Denver Civic Center, designed by Tryba Architects and RNL Architects.

Denver True hangs inside the building. It is composed of representations of two essential builder’s tools: a plumb bob, crafted from gold and aluminum, suspended over a surveyor’s target of dichroic glass. Sunlight through the dichroic glass casts colored beams onto a grid representing city streets on the floor below.

In the outdoor entry plaza, Kirkland carved two back-to-back classical heads from Bardiglio marble. The heads—based upon Janus, the Roman deity of portals—face due east and west and lie at the junction of two granite lines that bisect the plaza, indicating longitude and latitude. At the center of the heads is suspended a gilded plumb bob, marked in relief with the handprints of workers.

Materials & Dimensions

Denver True: gold on aluminum, dichroic glass, and stainless-steel cable, 25', 25' diameter. East-West, Source Point: carved Bardiglio marble, bronze, and gold, 14' x 15' x 3'.