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Good for the Sol
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A Bountiful Harvest
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The Fine Line
A Touch of Glass

A Touch of Glass
Alumnus Andy Cao Creates Translucent Landscapes
with Recycled Glass
By Jennifer Olds

While most people wouldn't expect much out of recycled glass, internationally renowned designer Andy Cao is definitely on the cutting edge. The Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture alumnus incorporates glass in his work on a daily basis, using it as a medium to transmit light, mood and beauty in sites throughout the world.

"Up to now, glass installations have mostly been very ornate, beautiful, one-of-a-kind structures found in museums or galleries," says Cao. "The challenge is to take it out of a museum context and make it accessible."

Just back from a successful installation at the Festival de Jardins, Cao admits it was difficult and expensive to transport his vision from his office in Los Angeles to the avante garde garden festival at Chaumont-sur-loire in France. Cao and his crew shipped more than ten tons of recycled glass, miles of rope and fragile blown-glass spheres to create "Desert Sea," which featured a cobalt blue glass ocean with islands of white glass planted with cacti and surrounded by rope coils.

Only 30 designers are chosen to present at the prestigious festival, and Cao's installation became so popular that it had to be roped off to prevent festival attendees from pocketing the attractive glass pebbles.

Cao graduated from Cal Poly Pomona in 1984 and credits its practical, hands-on program for creating an ecologically sound base of applicable knowledge.

"Cal Poly Pomona was a positive experience because it showed me the breadth and scope of landscape architecture," he says. "It helped me realign my focus and gave me the courage to realize I could find my own niche."

Not content to confine himself only to the creation of private landscapes, Cao sees himself as a public servant and believes that art should not be segregated from audience.

"There's a therapeutic quality to glass," he says. "And this is something that I hope to research further."

Cao will have the opportunity to do just that. He recently learned that he has been selected as a winner of the American Academy in Rome's 105th annual Rome Prize Competition. Past winners of this prestigious contest have hailed from Harvard and Yale. While living and working in Rome for one year, Cao hopes to build on his experimental usage of recycled glass as an alternative landscape medium and explore its emotional and artistic impact in contemplative spaces.

"The Rome Prize fellowship will allow me to explore this under-used material in the context of healing gardens and environmental art," says Cao.

His research will be instantly applied. Recent publicity generated a request from a City of Hope patron for Cao to create a permanent installation at the hospital. It is what he has always dreamed of-an exhibit that is open to the public, a therapeutic environment and a glass garden that can comfort and delight.

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