Houston Bayou, 2002
Smalti glass mosaic
8' x 73' x 0"
George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Terminal B, Houston, TX
Fabricated with the Perdomo Family’s Workshop Studios
Commissioned by City of Houston
Experience the piece in George Bush Intercontinental Airport, on the ground level in the connector walkway from the A/B garage into Terminal B. The concept of creating a complete environment that celebrates Houston’s unique bayou systems and natural beauty. Design elements are 8′ x 73′ byzantine glass mosaic mural installed on a serpentine wall, byzantine glass wrapping 5 large adjacent columns and a terrazzo floor design that enhances the mural and echoes the bayou theme.
The painting for the mosaic was designed so that the mosaic mural fits the wavy of the wall, coming forward in perspective as the wall moves forward, and receding with distant images as the wall flows back. As the hall opens into the rotunda, the mural is continued onto the 5 large adjacent columns. The columns are 12 feet high with a circumference of 18 feet. The image of clouds and an open misty bay wraps each one. Native flora and fauna are featured thought out the mural such as oversized humming birds, blue heron, damselfly, swamp iris, and palmettos.
1½ million pieces of glass were used in the mural, and fabrication alone was a yearlong process working with 4 full time artisans. The terrazzo floor design enhances the mural by using hand broadcast patterns that evoke the banks of the bayous. There are 40 cast bronze reliefs of native creatures; lizards, turtles, frogs, fish, inserted throughout the floor.
