Big Bling

Big Bling was presented by the Association for Public Art (aPA) in collaboration with Madison Square Park Conservancy, in Philadelphia from June to November 2017. Martin Puryear is an American artist, unique with his loyalty to creating pieces exclusively using wood, bronze, and other materials. He effortlessly masters reduction and minimalism while dedicating his pieces to bringing life; often leaving onlookers to use their imagination to decipher the result.

Pennoni was instrumental in the successful installation of Big Bling along the Schuylkill River Trail, just north of Boathouse Row, in Philadelphia. The eye-catching wood structure was multi-tiered and wrapped in chain-link fence, adorned with a colossal gold-leafed shackle near the top. Layers of laminated timbers and plywood combined to create an animal-like and abstract figure with an amoeboid opening in the center. With limited time to design, permit, construct a foundation, and install the sculpture, Pennoni’s Design-Build Group along with our Philadelphia Structural division expedited the design/documentation of the foundation system to accelerate the start of construction.