Mobile Grid and Metalab were hired on by Coca-Cola with DEKA and NRG to design and fabricate EKOCENTER, a 20' shipping container repurposed as a market kiosk, water purification center, and source of electricity aimed at enhancing communities and empowering women entrepreneurs in socio-economically challenged countries around the world. The prototype was unveiled in South Africa with Muhtar Kent (CEO) and Condoleezza Rice. Videos can be found here: Gotas de Vida; EKOCENTER Partnership; Coca-Cola and Multi-National Companies launch EKOCENTER

The installation of Greenway Blueway Byway Skyway.

Fabrication drawings for Nautical Swing with Matthew Geller to be installed at Hunters Point Shipyard have been completed.  Looking forward to this one finally getting off the server in 2014!

We finally have the opportunity to collaborate on a bridge design or at least half a bridge. With Matthew Geller we are providing a cantilevered structure with viewing platform next to a hiking trail and over a ravine to be installed in North Carolina.  The project is called Greenway Blueway Byway Skyway. The primary components have been assembled by Iron Access in Houston, the same fabricator who assembled the parts for Tumbling House.  We'll be installing this at the site in mid-December.

Radiance at El Paso Airport Design Development drawings

Coverage of the wide recognition received by Metalab and RE:Site for Memory Cloud appeared on ArchOne, the e-news publication for the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University.  

Another HRT sculpture, this one for Floyd Newsum, is being fabricated at Blumenthal Sheet metal.  Metalab reverse engineered the artist's model and rationalized the internal structure to allow horizontal structural plates to remain level as CNC cut parts project outward to produce the dynamic form of the columns.  Pyramids are being fabricated as separate units to be placed on the main assembly once it is installed.

We've been working on three different sculptures to be installed on the new East End and SE lines on the new Metrorail expansion.  Working for Houston Rapid Transit and Sara Kellner, Public Art Coordinator, Metalab is providing design optimization, fabrication coordination and managment of the works by created by Houston artists.  Jesse Lott is known for his work with found materials assembled into beautiful constructions.  This his largest work to date is based on a small sculpture that arrived in our office of hand bent wire with glass beads ornaments.  It was our role to scale the work up to a size that would resonate with the area's high concentration of vehicular traffic along with the presence of the light rail.  By working with Ingenium Engineers we divised a system of formed stainless steel pipe that could be engineered for structural stability that would form the "bones" on the sculpture fabricated by professional welder and the artist would provide the "skin" materials from their bricolage of found materials.  Blumenthal Sheet Metal in Houston are providing the turnkey fabrication and installation services with Metalab authoring the digital files for fabrication.  The work will be sited at Scott St. and Elgin St. near the University of Houston campus and the Third Ward community.

It was a nice day for some fall colors...

New York Times Fashion and Style writer Christopher Barnard paints a picture of the reemergence of the photobooth experience. These digital photobooths, Smilebooth and its counterparts, are taking social events across the nation by storm.