Stairway to Nowhere

In my last two blog posts I wrote about a couple of the fountains in Maguire Gardens, which is located on the Flower Street side of the Richard Riordan Central Library in downtown Los Angeles (L.A.).

The fountain this blog post is about is located directly across the street in what is known as the City National Bank Plaza.  So, technically if you wanted to see this fountain with your own two peepers; live, alive, breathing and all that while at Maguire Gardens, you'd just have to look across the street.

If you allow me to share (which how are you going to stop me...tee hee) from my Maguire Gardens' view, the sculpture portion of this fountain appeared to be some sort of abstract something.  (This piece is actually two pieces, a dark gray granite 60-foot diameter fountain with the sculpture portion affixed to the fountain.  In other words, the sculpture does not incorporate water into its design.)  Upon closer inspection I noticed that the sculpture is a set of steps that lead to nowhere.

While viewing the sculpture, to have the awareness that it is steps was a sublime "aha" moment for me.  The photos also make the sculpture appear to be multiple shades of orange.  Yet, it is simply the play of light on the sculpture that makes it appear so.  (The above photo was snapped with my back to Maguire Gardens while in the photo below my back is to the building front.)

So far, I appear to be not having as easy of a time finding out more about the fountains I am blogging about from internet searches.  Not to be deterred, I eventually found what I was looking for.  Thank you, Herbert Bayer, for creating this sculpture dedicated June 20, 1973.

What's in a name?  "Stairway to Nowhere" was the original title of this piece.  However, ARCO (the company that commissioned this piece) executives complained that the title did not properly reflect the company's goals.  The piece was renamed to "Double Ascension".

The bright red-orange aluminum steps are 20-ft. high and 30-ft. in diameter.  

One other thing you can't experience from my words or photos, the sound of the fountain.  This fountain does not have the dainty little trickles of some fountains.  NO!  Some major water must be pumping through this fountain for its sound is loud and proud.  Well, as loud and proud as a fountain can sound, I guess.

end of posting fine print:  all photos are copyright 2012 Lori J. Bjork, lbjork9999@yahoo.com