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High Tension Towers

I love electrical high tension towers. How many times have you looked past these hulking behemoths while driving down the New Jersey Turnpike, through Boston’s industrial outskirts, near Gary, Indiana’s old steel furnaces? OK, how many of you have been to Gary?

While designing the Morris Arboretum’s tree canopy walk (sorry I am not finished writing about this) I was looking for a visual inspiration for its towers. I started with the incredible geometry of these pylons. Triangles dominate and resonate throughout. Large and small. The cables that fly over your head not only transmit power across the sky, they also provide stability. All the towers act as a piece, holding each other up. See how transparent and lace-like they are. The structural components are paper thin angles that make huge three dimensional trusses in the

sky.

And the towers vary by the installation, each set with their own character, marching to the horizon.

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Comments

Hi,

I am an artist from Belgium. I want to make a work inspired on these high tension towers. If you have information on where I can find pictures that give me a good insight on the structure, that would help me.
Tanks,

Aäron

Hi Aaron,

Sorry for the delay in my response. I don’t know how to get drawings of these beauties. It will be hard with our country’s new interest/obsession concerning security. I got these images from flikr.com.

Good luck.

a

An interesting way to look at the vertical part of the energy horizon.

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