Local businesses and life-long residents interact with thousands of students from all over the globe in this diverse community. We were able to take formal cues from a quilt to describe the vibrant Urban Fabric of Bloomington in a very bold way. Nearly 10,000 colorful parts come together to transform a typically underutilized parking garage facade into a representation of the city.

A critical element of the design challenge was to create something highly complex and visually interesting while meeting a budget that would fit in the scope of the overall construction project. Only 3 part types are utilized to limit customized component count. Rotation, placement, and color provide all of the custom variation across the facade. Typically over-designed art projects are “value engineered” and simplified down to some version of the original design. We took a different approach, focusing on developing a system from the ground up that is simple to fabricate, install, and quote, while also accomplishing all of our conceptual goals right from the beginning.