Peace Poles
for Minneapolis
Community and Technical College
The goal is to get sixty translations on aesthetically pleasing and long lasting peace poles without spending more than $5000. These two proposals were designed to avoid expensive lifting, hauling and installation equipment. Both assume a certain amount of volunteer, unskilled student-labor at installation. Both also can be hauled from Cincinnati with nothing more than a borrowed trailer behind a passenger car and off loaded by a four person team on arrival. And both cost $5000.
These are preliminary prices.
Limestone Peace Pole
The first proposal is traditional. Sixty translations of "May Peace Prevail On Earth" engraved into a triumvirate of limestone poles to establish an area (garden?) defined by peace. A triumvirate brings a sculptural sense to the project that invites the viewer to enter an environment.* It also puts MCTC's project into the community of "peace pole parks" around the world that have multiple poles within close proximity.
The text is engraved vertically, as is traditional, with three to four translations on each side. Each pole stands between 7 and 8 feet tall and is about 6 inches in diameter. To see what the text looks like when engraved in a limestone pole of this size, click here.
Click pic to enlarge
Installation requires postholes and a bags of cement. I've moved and installed this size limestone pole with unskilled volunteers and it is not difficult. A team of four college guys would have no trouble lifting these into place. They also would be able to dig the postholes with a manual or automatic posthole digger (rentable from Home Depot).
In cross section, each limestone pole is a traditional hexagon. They are made from the same limestone from the same quarry as The Pentagon.
Copper and Stainless Peace Pole
This metal peace pole is less traditional than the limestone proposal above. It references the library. The text is horizontal like sentences on copper pages. The copper pages are bound by stainless steel covers on either end and with a stainless binding in the center between the leaves of this metal book.
The copper text on this peace pole is protected so that it is bright and reflective. All of the stainless steel is brightly polished as well. The shiny text is offset by copper that has a Verde patina. It is very difficult to represent patina and reflective surfaces in artwork. If this project reaches the point at which someone feels comfortable making a small deposit, I could, if desired, create a piece of the patina copper and polished text and ship it for final approval.
Click pic to enlarge
This pole stands fifteen feet tall and is ten inches in diameter. It is not expected to require any maintenance.
This pole also can be lifted off a trailer by a team of four people. Installation requires a posthole 5 feet deep. The pole can be set in cement or it can be installed merely by setting gravel and bricks in the bottom of the hole and then backfilling with sand. Five feet of stainless steel underground is enough to hold this pole in place without cement.
If during some meeting someone worries that the copper and stainless will need periodic polishing, advise them that this is not the case. I can speak more about that if necessary, but the point is for the Verde patina to offset the text. The text does not gain a patina because of a process developed by NASA for lining the insides of fuel tanks in space ships. Prior to this the expected longevity would have been decades. Now it is centuries.
Home | Table of Contents
Stone Peace Poles | Copper Peace Poles | Steel Peace Poles
Translations for Peace Poles
History of Peace Poles | Why Peace Poles
Institutional Size Peace Poles | Underwater Peace Poles
Carved Peace Poles | Resin Peace Poles | Painted Peace Poles
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*If possible some kind of bench or benches would be a nice addition between the limestone poles. Perhaps a future project could create a hexagonal limestone seating element in the space between them - perhaps a slice of limestone four feet in diameter and eighteen inches high.
