About This Piece

Until 2003, Denver’s various City departments were spread around the City at various locations. This meant doing business with the City was a multi-stop experience. The consolidation of Denver’s agencies into a one-stop location has not only saved the City money, it has created a place where we can base an understanding of how the City works.
Twelfth Floor: Judith Trager, “Canyon Walls”. With this in mind, the City selected a location for Wellington E. Webb Municipal Building adjacent to Civic Center Park. The addition of the Webb building to the Civic Center landscape brought together all the agencies that work to build the city and to administer the ordinances that define city life. The Public Art Program for the Webb Building was based on this set of understandings. Twelve artists were hired to each do an artwork for one of the floor’s elevator landings. Each artist was asked to create a unique work that represented an important element of Denver and its place on this landscape. From the bottom to the top the artists are: First Floor: Darrell Anderson, “Workers”, Second Floor: Sue Quinlan, “Antiquities and Revisited”, Third Floor: Bonnie Lhotka, “Whole Life”, Fourth Floor: Steve Altman, “Civic Centerized”, Fifth Floor: Darrell Anderson, “Construction”, Sixth Floor: Bill Starke, “Ascent”, Seventh Floor: Scott Greenig, “South Gateway”, Eighth Floor: Nathaniel Bustion, “Inter Spirit of the Created Colorado Vision”, Ninth Floor: Oyedele Oginga, “The Ensemble”, Tenth Floor: Jim Colbert, “Civic Center Floating Island”, Eleventh Floor: Daniel Salazar, “Grand Poobah & Office Fairy cut through red tape”, Twelfth Floor: Judith Trager, “Canyon Walls”. Artist’s Statement: Laid out beneath the pure azure skies of Colorado, spreading from the foot of the Rocky Mountains, Denver’s city grid is rooted in its regional geography, isolated by the beauty of our natural environment, yet part of the earth as a whole – a universal place in time

The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs commissioned twelve artists to each do an artwork for one of the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Building’s elevator landings. The pieces are intended not only as a physical representation of the various layers of government and city planning but also as geological representation of our location at the entrance to the foot hills. Layer upon layer of geological history is uprooted and exposed as seen as you travel west of Denver on I-70. This visual informed the concept for the artworks in the elevator core.

Each artist was asked to create a unique work that represented an important element of Denver and its place on this landscape.From the Artist’s Statement:Laid out beneath the pure azure skies of Colorado, spreading from the foot of the Rocky Mountains, Denver’s city grid is rooted in its regional geology. Isolated by the beauty of our natural environment, yet apart of the earth as a whole – Denver is a universal place in time and space. The relationship between man, nature and society is imbued in every aspect of “Whole Life”; artificial and virtual reality creates a visually transparent window, transcending the traditional two-dimensional media hanging flat upon a wall.