New sculpture lands at Denver International Airport

Denver International Airport (DEN) is well known for its public art collection. And one of the most notable pieces is the 32-foot fiberglass blue ‘Mustang’ sculpture by Luis Jiménez that’s on the Peña Boulevard approach to the airport.

Now there’s a new hard-to-miss sculpture welcoming people to the airport: Luminous Wind.

The 27-foot-tall ‘Luminous Wind’ sculpture is at the 61st and Peña Light Rail Station, which is the stop right before the airport station.

Created by artists Laura Haddad and Thomas Drugan, Luminous Wind includes 952 prismatic clear acrylic rods.

The rods are inspired by the grasses of the plains landscape and radiate out from a stainless steel sphere that sits on a giant tripod.

During the day sunlight reflects off the rods.

At night the dandelion-looking sculpture offers passersby a different light show each evening, thanks to programmable LED nodes that light up the rods.

As a bonus, the scupture’s light patterns are tied to a wind sensor. That turns the sculpture and its nightly shows into a barometer that visualizes wind patterns.

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