weathering steel, stainless steel, marine grade awning fabric, powder coated steel, and aluminum
A crossing beacon is a navigation marker found on riverbanks at the start and the end of a channel crossing, meaning it is both a point of departure and an arrival point when crossing from one bank to another. Something to leave from and move towards.
The piece draws from the visual language of its surroundings, echoing the brick corbels and the checkered tile of 4800 Second Avenue, truss patterns from the Hot Metal and Glenwood Highway Bridges, the skeleton of the former J & L Steel mill, and elements of traditional Hungarian embroidery patterns in the Josza Corner logo. The interlocked frames trace the river’s trajectory from West Homestead to Downtown, curving on the building’s corner at Hazelwood, which is marked by the sculpture’s namesake.
“Crossing Beacon is an amalgamation of what we see now, our capacity to imagine the past, and our ability to let that inform our future. An invitation to feel ourselves in the stream of deep time, connected many generations back and many forward. In referencing Ice Age maps of the Monangahela River and contemporary charts, we see that the river was once a massive lake spanning swaths of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, spilling miles beyond today’s seemingly solid banks. The city, this building, the land where you are now standing, were once under water. As we imagine that time before us, may we also reach forward with our minds and our hands towards a healthful relationship with one another and the life that surrounds us, knowing we have been here but a moment’s time.”
