A white weather balloon trailing caution tape soared 40 feet above the grass outside Chapman Hall Friday, marking the latest step in a cross-disciplinary effort to build a new monument on campus.
The project is intended to help students and faculty replicate a Roman solarium initially constructed by Augustus Caesar in 10 B.C. If completed, the solarium’s obelisk will tell time by casting a shadow on markings surrounding it.
Members of several departments have volunteered their time to computing, planning and experimenting, although planners have yet to secure funding or a definite location for the proposed monument.
“It will be the only piece of art on campus rooted in scholarship,” said John Nicols, a professor of history and classics.
Original plans for the Memorial Quad, which extends south from the Knight Library to East 13th Ave., called for an obelisk, but they were eventually scrapped, Nicols said. Work on this project started about a year and a half ago, he said.
On Friday, architecture instructor Stephen Duff created a peak with wire coat hangers that workers affixed to the weather balloon to represent the peak of the obelisk.
The group photographed the representation from several heights and angles. Using Photoshop, members will digitally insert an obelisk into the photos to show what the monument will look like in front of the varying architecture of the quad.
Last year, physics professor Robert Zimmerman and physics student Sandra Penny calculated the markings for the monument’s solar calendar and painted them at a test site in front of McKenzie Hall.
The group is still looking for funding for the project, which Nicols said he hopes will be erected to commemorate Campaign Oregon, the school’s $600 million fundraising drive.
“The hoops we are jumping through for this are phenomenal,” architecture instructor Virginia Cartwright, said.
Placement of monument remains uncertain. Tim King, facilities exterior team supervisor, said the school may want the monument placed on the axis of the quad. Nicols wants to make sure that the obelisk’s shadow won’t be obscured by the Knight Library on Dec. 21, the day when the sun is the farthest south.
Engineering will play a part in determining how to build the proposed 40-foot obelisk to strengthen it against earthquakes.
“We would prefer a solid granite monolith, like the original stone,” Nicols said.
Other materials are also being considered. It may have a granite veneer and a steel shaft to help stabilize against earthquakes, he said.
“There is a potential for vandalism,” Nicols said, adding that yellow and green paint are likely candidates for defacing the monument.
“Once you start cleaning it, it will never look the same,” he said.
Designers are also worried about someone climbing the obelisk.
Zimmerman assisted in calculating the positions of marks that will identify the time, month and day in the shadow cast by the obelisk.
“I will be very proud of the project,” Zimmerman said. “It is a unique project and hopefully will become the landmark for the UO.”
Nicols thinks a solarium like this will be well-suited to the campus, despite Oregon’s tendency to have cloudy skies.
“Once this goes up, I can guarantee it will rain
only at night and be sunny everyday,” Nicols said.
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