News Release

Fallen Star Hoist at the Jacobs School

San Diego, CA, November 15, 2011 -- A scene right out of the “Wizard of Oz,” with a few modern twists, is taking place today here at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. A small house is about to land on top of EBU 1, hoisted by one of the largest cranes in the United States. The house is scheduled to be hoisted at 11:30 AM on Tuesday November 15, 2011.

Get the latest pictures and updates on the Fallen Star hoist on the Jacobs School social media streams:

Blog: http://jacobsschoolofengineering.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/UCSDJacobs

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UCSDJacobs

It’s all part of a new piece of artwork in the Stuart Collection, which brings site-specific works of art to the campus. Other pieces in the collection include the Sun God, near the UC San Diego Faculty Club, and the Bear, in the Engineering Courtyard.

This latest work is titled “Fallen Star” and is three-quarter-sized version of a small house in Providence, R.I. The entire sculpture consists of the house, cantilevered at an angle from the corner of EBU 1, with a roof garden on the existing building. It weighs in at about 70,000 pounds.

Update: Watch the house hoist on YouTube.

The crane that will lift the Fallen Star up to the roof of EBU 1 arrived this around 7:30 a.m. on Warren Mall. Crews assembled it slowly until it reached its final height, which will allow it to lift the artwork up to the seventh floor. By 10 a.m., construction crews were lassoing a harness around the house. It is connected to the crane and will allow the artwork to travel through the air to its destination.

Once the house is hoisted on top of EBU 1, there still will be quite a bit of work to do. It needs to be furnished. The area around it also will be transformed into a garden with plants from the East Coast. Fallen Star is set to be open to the public sometime this spring, in February or March.  

The work is supported entirely by private donations to the Stuart Collection and a $90,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It explores the feeling of displacement many students may experience as they move onto a university campus, as well as the notion of home.

“Fallen Star can be seen as a kind of ‘home’ for the students who have left their homes to come to the university,” said Mary Beebe, director of the Stuart Collection. 

Media Contacts

Daniel Kane
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-3262
dbkane@ucsd.edu

Ioana Patringenaru
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-822-0899
ipatrin@ucsd.edu