Lookingglass Theatre Company Glass Sign and Sculpture

Designed by Morris Architects|Planners, the Lookingglass Theater Company and sculpture was created by using the "pressed" method of shaping the molten glass. In this process, ten "U" shaped castings were produced by first pouring molten glass into a rectangular graphite mold, then inserting a graphite die into the mold with a hydraulic press. After pressing the die for about 2 minutes the glass has taken on the desired shape and can be removed from the mold for annealing. That was the easy part.

Once removed from the annealing ovens, each casting was then ground flat and level with a process known as "cold working". Several methods of cold working were applied to the castings to prepare them to be joined together, all involving diamond tooling and lots of water.

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Studio Foreman, Lawrence Huff, watches on as Alejandro Rivera and Juan Cazares fill the graphite mold to the desired level.

Larry, Juan, Jason Ganz and Douglas Posner center the graphite die prior to pressing.

Juan, Alex and Lee Kobus remove the pressed casting from it's mold.

Juan and Alex put the casting away to anneal.

Rob Knowles cold works the glass by hand in preparation for gluing.

The first of five pairs of castings are joined with epoxy.

Lee begins siliconing the first hollow rectangle while the second dangles in the background.

John Lewis watches as Lee and Rob complete the process of adhering the five pairs of castings together.

Larry applies white gold leaf to the Lookingglass logo which has been etched on glass panels to be inserted into the finished sculpture.

Rob and John guide the gold leafed glass inserts into the sculpture.

With the help of a crane and employees of Advantage Sign Installation, the sculpture is carefully moved...

...to it's final resting place on The Magnificent Mile.