During my visit to the Byrne residence over Labor Day weekend, I was fortunate enough to have time on Saturday to trek south to Arizona State University and visit the recently-completed James Turrell installation located near the intersection of Rural Road and Terrace Road in Tempe.  While the official opening for this incredible space isn’t scheduled until October, I’d received rave reviews from several people with close ties to the project, so I felt a quick visit was definitely in order! I’m looking forward to reading more about the project in the next few weeks, though I did find a brief mention here, further piquing my interest.

Unfortunately, I didn’t time my arrival precisely enough to witness the light show at dusk, (I’ll have to save that for a return trip with Martha), but the lighting in the late afternoon did afford me the opportunity to carefully examine the structure itself, the surrounding gardens and the wonderful details spotted on the walk over from where I’d parked.

…and two photographs Martha captured when we went back in December right at dusk to watch the incredible light show!

These are the very same cacti Todd Briggs suggested we use in various places around the Byrne residence. He said this installation required something like 968 of them, all aligned in a perfect grid-like pattern – isn’t the visual effect captured in this photograph, (below), appealing? I certainly think so!

…and I really appreciated the incredibly-precise graphics carefully carved into the concrete, (seen in photograph below). As an avid cyclist, I could only hope such attractive – and long-lasting – icons like this would eventually make their way out onto the roadways all over the entire state!

…of course, that lovely planter and beautiful black granite bench it supports isn’t too bad either, is it? 😉