mjcca news - The Jewish Georgian

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 39
A winning leader in the arts
BY
Carolyn
Gold
One of a continuing series of articles about women
who are community leaders.
Guess what happened to the girl next door. We
watched that pretty child of our cherished neighbors
grow through elementary and high school. Now she
has become one of Atlanta’s leading women in the
arts.
That’s Amy Landesberg, a public artist and
winner of the national competition to design the art
installation in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport’s new international terminal.
Her site-specific artwork, called Veneers, is 640 feet
long and runs in the underground connector between
Concourse E and the new Concourse F.
It consists of enormously enlarged wood grains
of 29 endangered species of rare trees. The natural
wood-grain patterns have been computer magnified
and colorized to show their designs in a new way.
These woods are endangered because they have been
used historically as decorative veneers.
Amy has created a meaningful connection
between a city known for its trees, a mode of transportation
that flies way above those trees, and colorful
images bringing together ecological issues and
art.
Veneers, Atlanta International Airport
EF Connector, south-side view looking
west, bays 17-29
The national competition was held in 2004-
2005. Five artists were qualified by a panel to compete.
Amy was the only local competitor, and she
won. Her design, using 508 pieces of laminated
glass, functions both as art and architecture, a glass
dividing wall between the two corridors. LED light
passes through the glass, projecting colors much as
stained glass, onto passersby.
The drawing took three people a year to complete.
The entire construction took two years, and the
whole project with the airport involved eight years,
at a cost of $1.5 million. The high-tech project
employs steel, glass, and lighting. Amy says, “It was
like building a building.” It is situated in a space the
length of three football fields.
Amy Landesberg’s visual art background made
her well qualified for this major project. As an undergraduate,
her first interest in art was pottery, her
major at the University of New Hampshire. Upon
returning to Atlanta, she earned a master’s degree in
visual art, again with emphasis in pottery, from
Georgia State University.
In 1981, she married John Whittemore, an
installer of exhibitions at art museums. Amy became
interested in architecture, and, a few years later, she
entered Yale. The family, with one daughter, moved
to New Haven, Connecticut. After three years and
another daughter, Amy earned a master’s degree in
architecture from Yale.
Back in Atlanta, Amy worked for a couple of
architectural firms. Now she works independently as
Veneers, Cipres de la Guaitecas,
Atlanta International Airport EF
Connector, bay 6 bench
either an artist, doing public art by commission, or as
an architect. Her firms are Amy Landesberg Art &
Design Incorporated, Amy Landesberg Architects,
and LP3, in which she is a principal, along with
Stuart Romm.
About this team effort, Stuart said, “Amy has
been a great friend and amazing collaborator on so
many challenging architectural projects over the last
15 years. After growing up in the same community
here in Atlanta, it was nevertheless a surprise to find
ourselves teaching design studios side-by-side at
Georgia Tech in 1992. Then, the Beth Jacob Mikvah
was our first architectural commission together, followed
by many more civic and college campus
buildings. That’s where Amy’s probing art projects
have opened up such vital insights into how to make
our architecture far more unique and publicly
responsive, both visually and environmentally.”
Some of Amy’s recent public art projects
include an installation on the exterior of the Fulton
County Center for Health and Rehabilitation and an
award-winning steel construction for an electrical
sub-station owned jointly by Georgia Tech and
Georgia Power. She has designed art galleries, museums,
healthcare facilities, educational buildings, a
rapid rail station, a fire station, and a university
bookstore. Among her many honors and awards,
over a nearly 30-year career of solo exhibitions,
teaching, and building, is the Moulton Andrus Award
for Art and Architecture, from the Yale School of Art
and Architecture.
Amy Landesberg believes that public art
defines a civilization. Her latest winning work adds
beauty, color, meaning, and the international issue of
endangerment and preservation of natural resources
to Atlanta’s international welcome.
Veneers, Spanish Cedar, Atlanta
International Airport EF Connector, bay 4