A commission can start for many reasons, and this one began when the Fairmont Hotel responded to neighborhood complaints of nighttime light bleed from the hotel’s exterior LED sign. The artists considered neighborhood feedback and the historical significance of the location when creating two scenes depicting Chicago’s bridges and skyscrapers.

 

Bronze worked best for the hotel design, but the oval bronze pipe structure could support the weight of bronze. Instead, the artists cast the bas-relief panels in aluminum and hand-applied a custom bronze finish. The day of installation, several residents attended and were engaged enough to get the local media to cover Chicago Works.