Union Square Beacon

This project won a design competition by the city of somerville to repurpose a dilapidated clock tower on the Union Square Fire Station (1903). The building now houses the somerville community access TV (SCAT). The tower was originally capped by a cupola which contained the fire warning bell and siren. With that in mind i conceptualized a light sphere which would contain hundreds of multi colored led lights which could be coded in an infinite variety of ways to signal weather forecasts, time, snow emergencies or simply illuminate the center of Union Square with beautiful color patterns. The frame would be built of marine grade stainless steel, the plexiglass dome would be made of two solid acrylic domes and the lights would be arrayed on a spherical steel mesh. Control of the light patterns would be from a panel in the scat office so that citizens could propose various displays.

Alas, the funding for this project did not materialize so the tower retains it current use as a pigeon roost.