The intact medallion map extracted from the terrazzo floor, preparing for transportation.
For the past few months, Artists Circle has been working hard on our new project with the Montgomery County Planning Board. The board is moving their entire production from Silver Spring MD, to Wheaton MD. Their new 14-story building is highlighted by “The large, inviting entrance lobby, framed in glass and illuminating the new plaza at night to symbolize the transparency and civic-mindedness of government. The two-story lobby space will be open to the public and used for displays, celebrations and other events,” according to their official website. They chose Artists Circle for the difficult task of relocating its historic medallion map of Montgomery County, set in terrazzo, from Silver Spring to Wheaton. Terrazzo is a flooring material made out of chips of marble or granite, set in concrete, and polished to give a smooth surface, and in this case, can form art.
As seen above, placed in the lobby of the Silver Spring location is the terrazzo inlaid map of Montgomery County. Artists Circle’s Principal Jack Devine, along with Installer and Art Handler Dan Wasson, have both contributed an exuberant amount of time and effort into making this dream a reality! “The map in question is actually out of date. It was installed in the 1960s and at some point the boundary line between Montgomery County and PG County changed. The map, beyond being an archival item repurposed as a symbol of Park and planning, is also a historical record of the county's geography,” says Principal Jack Devine.
This project involved a lot of planning: several site assessments, scans of the lobby floor and map itself, and even removing the glass windows on the Silver Spring building to fit the terrazzo out the door, and into its new home. “The first thing we did was use GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) to see what was below the surface. It is a bit of an inexact, interpretive science, but it did provide some useful information. Next we did a 1" core drill sample in a discrete area of the foyer. Again, this gave some information but ultimately we did a 2" core and went deeper. That core gave us a pretty good reassurance we could remove the terrazzo without it breaking into a million pieces. Ultimately what really allowed us to extract it, in addition to the care and meticulous work of our expert masons, was a very thin layer of parchment-like paper that was installed as a Bond Breaker between the lower building slab and the concrete poured to support the terrazzo,” Principal Devine explains.
Ultimately, this new and continued project has given Artists Circle the chance to prove our diverse skill-set in almost every art medium that's out there. We will finish the map installation in the Montgomery County Planning Board’s new Wheaton location, and continue to make their design dreams a reality!