2019-23
CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
TERMINAL LOBBY EXPANSION PHASE II
West End Sculpture, 2022
East End Sculpture, 2023
Bi-colored Stainless-Steel Spheres, Laser Perforated Stainless Steel Tube, Programmable LED lighting
19’ L x 16’ W x 23’ H each
Commissioning Agency: Arts and Science Council Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Site: Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Terminal Lobby Expansion, Charlotte, NC
Architect: Gresham Smith
Engineers: Lera+
Lighting: Signify, RGB Lighting
Fabrication: Rainier Industries
Installation: Imagine Design
Photos: Ben Premeaux
Commissioned by The Arts & Science Council (ASC)
CONCEPT
MERIDIAN anchors the East and West Ends of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport Terminal lobby with a self-illuminating, algorithmically driven set of twin sculptures, offering reflections on the personal and collective ways we navigate our place in the world.
DESIGN
The sculptures’ form traverses a layered ‘DNA’ of orbital spatial relationships, from the airport flight patterns globally to the arching pathways of the interior and exterior architectures.
The cycle of departure and return is featured in the spiraling motion, accentuated by the movement of the integrated, programmable lighting moving through each sculpture.
MERIDIAN premiers’ Roney Studio’s fabrication innovations in combining multi-axis freeform bent perforated stainless-steel tube with embedded LED systems to create a dynamic, time-based emblem for Airport visitors.
COMMUNITY
Danielle Roney’s process involved a 2-year engagement initiative in which community participants were invited to contribute their geographical histories to MERIDIAN, tracing hundreds of individual data sets across the embedded LED systems. Articulating movements across the sculptures, these illuminated pathways highlight how we come together to create communities.
Community engagement was also extended to a include the development an All Ages READING LIST based on MERIDIAN’s central themes of Journey and Discovery.
SITE
Each sculpture functions as a gateway to the East and West End atrium bays while framing skyline views to the East. MERIDIAN’s East/West juxtapositions enable both sides of the form to be experienced from exterior vehicular and pedestrian corridors. Upper-level mezzanine views incorporate airy floating perspectives, while subterranean escalator and stair entrances reveal dynamic canopy views upon arrival to the Departures and Ticketing lobby. These locations anchor the visitors’ experience, creating interior destinations and contributing to wayfinding strategies.
MERIDIAN welcomes each of Charlotte’s 48 million annual travelers to this memorable destination, contributing to the Queen City’s role as a great transit corridor of the world, a visionary destination, and an epicenter of creative innovation.