Smooth Cut, Sharp Design - Waterjet Technology

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Aalto's design background gives the company a competitive edge. A client can come in with an idea or sketch; Aalto will then interpret the idea, make suggestions, and produce a blueprint. Once a drawing is approved, a computer programmer digitizes the drawing, developing a production-ready blueprint that meets the client's need and interfaces directly with the cutting machinery.

A world map mosaic for Denver's new airport was created in this way, illustrating both the technology's cutting capabilities and the company's unique design resources. The client had a concept, Aalto suggested the materials, and a stunning piece resulted. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle spanning 50 feet x 25 feet, each of the map's 4,500 multi-colored stone pieces has been individually cut and then fitted to create a panoramic view of continents and swirling bodies of water.

At Chicago O'Hare Airport's United Airlines terminal, Creative Edge cut glass for the spectacular overhead sculpture of neon and glass designed by architect Murphy Jahn. Another highly visible project is the Astronauts' Memorial at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The 40-foot x 40-foot memorial has been programmed to gently rotate, tracking the sun's movements. Created from five-foot square panels of two-inch thick granite, the memorial's highly polished surface mirrors the clouds and changing sky. The names of United States astronauts who have given their lives in pursuit of space exploration appear in the black granite-like stars. Creative Edge cut the names out of the granite and filled it in with inlaid crystal. As the memorial rotates in the sunshine, light shines through the astronauts' names, causing them to twinkle like stars in a night sky.

Closer to home, Creative Edge recently worked with Baldwin White Architects, Des Moines, on a tower structure for the Forest Avenue Branch of the Des Moines Public Library. Conceived as a central icon for the community, the library tower crowns the Mid-City Vision Committee's years of efforts to improve the neighborhood on the north side of Des Moines.

Children of the community were enlisted to help light the way. Students from Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and Moulton Middle School selected appropriate quotations for each of four book-like panels at the base of the twenty-one-foot steel frame tower. Two of the groups created their own statement. The outside surfaces of the panels are painted steely gray, while the inner surfaces are bright colors: violet, green, blue and red. The view of the stenciled words on each panel reveals these colorful inner surfaces. "The gray panels are like book covers," says project coordinator Roger Spears. "You never know what books arc really like from the cover. The magic of books is inside."

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