UNIVERSITY PARK – The Board of Trustees Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning recently received an update on the progress and design of the “We Are” sculpture, the 2013 senior class gift.
Ford Stryker, associate vice president for Physical Plant, said the sculpture will be located near the east side of the Intramural (IM) Building, at the northwest corner of the intersection of Curtin Road and University Drive, on the University Park campus.
The 2013 senior class gift committee held a national competition and selected Brooklyn sculptor and Penn State alumnus Jonathan Cramer to design the project.
Cramer’s design, which Stryker unveiled to the board, includes a 12-foot sculpture of the iconic words “We Are” in mirror-polished, solid stainless steel, bolted to a concrete foundation surrounded by a stone base and cap. An interpretive sign located near the sculpture will be inscribed with the words of Penn State’s Alma Mater, represented in Professor of American Literature Fred Lewis Pattee’s original handwriting. Pattee wrote the Alma Mater in 1901.
“The senior class of 2013 chose to celebrate Penn State’s alumni spirit,” said Stryker. “The Alma Mater inscription and the sculpture will serve as a visual representation of what it truly means to be a Penn Stater.”
Stryker noted that inspiration for the sculpture may be found in Philadelphia’s “LOVE” sculpture, as well as the material of the “Cloud” sculpture — more commonly referred to as the “Bean” — on the Miracle Mile in Chicago.
Preliminary construction of the site will commence near the completion of the IM Building expansion – Phase I project.