TELSTAR AT THE TWILIGHT HOUR
Telstar at Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA
Designer: Studio Roso, London, England
This giant sculpture—35 feet high and weighing in at 40,000 pounds—is based on the iconic football design by Adidas which is in turn named after the Telstar satellite. It is made up of 350 polished stainless steel panels forming 121 facets on the surface. These are mounted on aluminium and composite frames, all suspended on a galvanised steel structure.
The sculpture was built entirely in London and shipped to Atlanta in three 40’ sea containers and was installed in three phases at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Sophie Nielsen, who co-founded Studio Roso with Rolf Knudsen, said the goal of the soccer ball design was to make kaleidoscopic spaces which "create a collage of the environment with images of the sky, stadium and fans....Everything will merge within the ball and create a tapestry," she said. And indeed, looking at this photograph, you can see that it turned out exactly as Sophie and Rolf had envisioned it!
To see more photographs of this project, follow this link.