Nine cut steel grilles, 16 feet by 22 to 30 feet wide, transform the facade of the parking structure located at 16th and L Streets.

Note:  To view photos in full size, please click on the image.

The series of nine grilles or rajas is inspired by the wrought-iron tracery with the center radiation used as transoms over the entrance to patios and zaguanes in the colonial hacienda and mission architecture of Mexico from the sixteen to nineteen centuries.

The representation in each rajas is the image of the rising sun.  The inspiration for the rising sun icon comes from the Aztec "Stone of the Sun" or Aztec calendars as well as the shining, sun-feathered headdresses of Quetzalcoatl or the Morning Star.

Rather than representing the full sun in complete circles, the grilles offer slices of radiating movement that seem to be part of a much larger field of energy.  Wavy gestures, dots, flower shapes, and blocks of short parallel lines form concentric arcs that sweep across the metal panels.  Seen from moving vehicles, the cutout shapes congeal into flickering arches; viewed by pedestrians, the details themselves are engaging.