Looking towards the sky

"I've never even thought about it. I don't understand why it should be right here," Wayne State University student Rich Evans says as he stands in the sharp autumn wind, staring at the 40-foot-tall stainless steel spike outside the College of Engineering.

For most, the Helios Trail sculpture is just another obscure piece of art. But to the College of Engineering, it is a symbol that represents students' efforts to reach the top.

"We felt like that was quite fitting for the college," says Fred Beaufait, who concepted the sculpture while he was dean of the college (1986 to 1996). "Not only for its beauty, but for the kind of story that it told."

Helios Trail leaps from its base along Warren Avenue where it slants and points with its sharp tip toward the sky. The silver swirls along its surface glint. Its curved, serrated edge gives the impression that it's on fire. From afar, it's dwarfed by the neighboring buildings. But up close, its presence is massive.

The College of Engineering began its search for a sculpture in 1988. Beaufait says he wanted the sculpture to be an addition to the college's campus presence, especially since he saw engineering as related to art. His other objective was to have a unique logo.

"It's important to have a brand," he says. "A logo, an identifier, so that when people see it, they know what it is, who it's for and what it's about."

Beaufait and others in the College of Engineering held a national competition to attract artists. A committee of faculty, alumni and artists was set up, and ads were sent to galleries and put in magazines.

"We had quite a number of proposals," Beaufait says. "I think it was something like 20 or more."

Bruce White, then a professor at the Northern Illinois University School of Art, was one of four finalists who were asked to submit miniature models of their proposed sculptures. White's Helios Trail model was displayed with the others at the college.

When White first heard of the competition, he already had experience with large sculptures. He says he liked the idea of rising - the College of Engineering rising in the scope of new technology. White did hundreds of freehand sketches with a special focus on the edge, where he tried to capture the feeling of energy moving and exploding upward.

"It all just fit together," he says. "The one edge is straight and the other edge has that kind of exciting contour on it. So that's the way I put them together - the stability of one edge and the excitement of the other."

Beaufait says the committee picked Helios Trail as the winner because of its unison with the spirit of the College of Engineering and its function as a logo.

"Some of the other proposals just weren't quite as adaptive for a logo," he says. "I remember one of them was a piece of sculpture suspended from cables between the buildings, and one of them was like the Stonehenge monument all around in a circle.

"They just didn't lend themselves to one of the criteria that we wanted, and that was to be able to get a nice logo out of it."

White worked on the sculpture for more than six months in his studio in DeKalb, Ill.. "There's so much equipment you need," he says. "It's like running a little factory."

White and his assistant made large-scale copies of the drawings and laid them on the floor in his studio to draw patterns, which they used to create the stainless-steel frame and panels. White said he used grinders, cutting tools and polishers to create the contoured and hollow structure.
"It would be like an airplane structure inside it," he says. "It diminishes in size as it goes upward just as an airplane wing diminishes in size."

According to an article printed in the defunct engineering student magazine Wayne Engineer, Helios Trail was officially unveiled Sept. 22, 1989, to a crowd of "engineering faculty, alumni, students and those curious on-lookers that just happened to walk by despite inclement weather."
There were some slight malfunctions in the unveiling. Beaufait says a rope was attached to the large canvas, covering the sculpture so that when it was pulled the entire thing would unzip.
"As one might expect, the rope got hung up, and we had a heck of a time getting the canvas off the sculpture to unveil it," he says.

From its unveiling more than two decades ago, the Helios Trail sculpture is still the College of Engineering's symbol. Former Public Affairs Officer David Reich said its name is used in the department's newsletter, the "Spirit of Helios." "It's included in our logo … it's on all printed literature coming from the college," he says.

In 2007, Helios Trail was separated from its base, lifted by a crane and put into storage during construction on the neighboring Marvin I. Danto Engineering Development Center. Since the center's completion in 2009, Helios Trail stands in its new location on Warren Avenue near the conjunction of the old and new buildings.

"It's one of the more powerful sculptures around campus," Reich says. "The new location makes it even more dynamic, especially on a very sunny day with a blue sky against that steel background. It's pretty awesome."

White said he's seen pictures of his sculpture's new location.

"I like the design of the building," he says. "The sculpture gets a little dwarfed by the new building. But when you pass by, I'm guessing it looks larger because of the perspective."

To White, public art is unique because the audience is unknown and often not interested in art.
"If I'm having a gallery show, anybody can go to it that wants to, and if they're offended they can walk out," he says. "But with this, I have to make something that people will be looking at for many, many years in public."

He says people look at public art with preconceived notions, which makes it difficult for them to enjoy it.

"Just like finding a flower," White says. "You don't have to know the name of the flower when you see it to enjoy it."

The sculpture continues to raise mixed reactions from passers-by today. Big, bulky, abstract, modern and weird are a few.

But after careful observation, some begin to see its dynamic qualities. Still staring at the sculpture, Evans pauses to think it over and says, "It changes depending on which way you're looking at it."

By Aysha Jamali
South End writer