The Witness – Martin Puryear

 

The Witness - Martin Puryear

This is the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC. Martin Puryear’s, “The Witness” is 40’ tall made of bronze plating with stainless steel frames. I didn’t know before this that those two metals weld beautifully together.

We had to install this piece at site and hired a crane to help us. When we showed up we wanted to move the crane into position and the building engineers said wait, wait, stop. The courtyard was the roof to the garage below and it won’t hold the weight of the crane. So, we had to stop and go back to the drawing board until everything was checked, and in fact the crane would be allowed to get into position. We never suspected.