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Shands Photographics
“I really want people to feel a sense of grace,” Goldberg adds. Before people enter, he recog- nizes there is a sense of chaos from the world around them. And as they walk through the portal, they’re permitted to leave that chaos behind and sort of leave the outside world, he explains.
slippery rock gAzette
fabricating it, and then realizing the capabilities for doing creative things with the material, it opens up so many possibilities.
Today and for years to come, res- idents and visitors of Richardson, Texas, will be able to leave the chaos of the world behind and enjoy some calm and serenity as they pass through Sylvan Portals at Spring Creek Nature Area.
Spring Creek Nature Area and Sylvan Portals earned a 2020 Pinnacle Award of Excellence from the Natural Stone Institute. “There is something romantic, and with some difficulty, to cull out and keep the remains of stone cuts,” jurors said. “Playing up the drill holes is a nice touch as a use of texture. It softens the face of the stone. We like the massive scale of the stone sculptures and the sim- plicity of the project as a highly appropriate gateway, marking the entrance to a nature preserve.”
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Roll On, Bro
Portals
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“We would start out in the morn- ing and set as many blocks as we could,” Goldberg explains.
The team would usually set one row, or one course, and not more than that because they’d need to set the row in a full bed of mortar. “It’s not like they’re just setting on shims and the space in between is hollow,” Goldberg explains. “You have to set the shims on the foun- dation, place a full bed of mortar and then set the block and make sure it’s perfectly level and per- fectly aligned to the shape of the piece. It’s a tricky process with 1/8” tolerances on the large gran- ite blocks. You don’t make a huge amount of progress every day, but you make progress.”
Barnes and his team love work- ing with artists like Goldberg, since it’s outside their daily routine and stretches their problem-solv- ing abilities. In this case, they needed to figure out how to make this installation look as seam- less as possible once constructed
Photo by Dee Brown
too. The piece will connect with those who want to connect with it. Even those driving past at 40 miles per hour can notice and appreciate them, he says, due to their size.
and to do so, everything had to be exact. Even one tiny chip in a cor- ner would be an issue because it wouldn’t be perfect.
“We had to be very patient. We had to be very cautious. And to do something like that, you’ve got to have a very good crane operator and communicate well with them in order to keep everybody safe,” adds Barnes.
By November 2019, after five weeks of erecting the pieces with- out any breakage, the installation was complete.
An Artist’s Vision Comes To Life
“A lot of people don’t pay attention to the world around them,” Goldberg says. He real- izes some people will probably look at Sylvan Portals and say, “wow, that’s cool” and go about their business as usual. That’s fine with him. Then there are others, he says, who will stop and really notice the details. They might notice the dynamic shape and the cutout that looks like a leaf. They will analyze it and notice the nat- ural stone. That’s fine with him,
Each portal includes a quote by two prominent nature advocates: John Muir and Rachel Carson. Goldberg says he wanted to high- light nature as much as possible in his piece and including these quotes is part of the overall design and feeling.
“I really want people to feel a sense of grace,” he adds. Before people enter, he recognizes there is a sense of chaos from the world around them. And as they walk through the portal, they’re permit- ted to leave that chaos behind and sort of leave the outside world, Goldberg explains. Today’s envi- ronment isn’t built for people to just walk around and ride their bikes, he says. The portals allow people to transition from a busy street.
“You enter the world of a for- est,” he adds. “Once inside the for- est, there aren’t buildings or a lot of things. There is that sense of forest bathing and a sense of peace and calm and people can bike through it and or walk through it.”
Stone as Stone
Goldberg’s son is an archi- tect and while he saw the con- cept during the design phase, it was when he saw the piece in per- son that he really appreciated the use of natural stone as part of the design.
“This is stone, stone as stone,” Goldberg adds. Natural stone inspires people to become more creative and while he recognizes it’s hard for architects to make the visit to stone supplier operations like Coldspring, Goldberg says the trek is worth it.
“The hardest thing is to get an architect to travel up to Coldspring,” says Goldberg, who insists it’s just not that hard since it’s easy to get there by air or driv- ing and the payoff is unmatched. Once they arrive and see the nat- ural stone in person, experience what is involved in extracting and
Project Title and location: Spring Creek Nature Area, Richardson, Texas
Artist: Brad J. Goldberg, Dallas, Texas
Landscape
Architect: DCBA Landscape Architects, Plano, Texas
Stone Supplier(s): Coldspring, Kenora, Ontario, Canada (Kenoran Sage granite)
Stone Fabricator: Coldspring, Cold Spring, Minnesota
Stone Installer: Dee Brown, Inc., Richardson, Texas
Engineer: Curtainwall Design Consulting, Dallas, Texas
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2021 issue of Building Stone Magazine. Visit www.build- ingstonemagazine.com to read more.
Megy Karydes is a Chicago-based writer. Find her at MegyKarydes.com .