Robert Boyd
Hey Pan fans--you might remember a post I wrote six years ago about corporate sculpture. One of the things I wrote about at the time was how a large sculpture from 1971 by George Sugarman, called variously the Saint Paul Commission or the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, had been purchased by commercial real estate Grubb & Ellis and dismembered. The firm used the dismembered parts to decorate various office properties it owned in Houston, Austin, and I believe in the Woodlands (north of Houston). (Grubb & Ellis went bankrupt in 2012, so I wonder who now owns all these scraps of Sugarman's sculpture.) Three years later, I happened across a piece of the Sugarman sculpture in Austin. And this morning, as I walked through back streets in Montrose, I found some more pieces of it.
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George Sugarman, part of the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
Unlike the other pieces I've seen, these two were not well-maintained or marked with a plaque. The black struts had bits of blue paint from what I assume was an attempt to repaint the circular elements. But they were permanent--they were bolted to the ground.
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George Sugarman, part of the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
So what did this thing look like when it was installed up in St. Paul? I have found a few photos online.
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George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
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George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
![]()
George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
This last photo is quite interesting. It's from the website of Lippincott, a firm that specializes in the fabrication and conservation of large metal sculptures. The man in the picture is George Sugarman.
Hey Pan fans--you might remember a post I wrote six years ago about corporate sculpture. One of the things I wrote about at the time was how a large sculpture from 1971 by George Sugarman, called variously the Saint Paul Commission or the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, had been purchased by commercial real estate Grubb & Ellis and dismembered. The firm used the dismembered parts to decorate various office properties it owned in Houston, Austin, and I believe in the Woodlands (north of Houston). (Grubb & Ellis went bankrupt in 2012, so I wonder who now owns all these scraps of Sugarman's sculpture.) Three years later, I happened across a piece of the Sugarman sculpture in Austin. And this morning, as I walked through back streets in Montrose, I found some more pieces of it.
George Sugarman, part of the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
Unlike the other pieces I've seen, these two were not well-maintained or marked with a plaque. The black struts had bits of blue paint from what I assume was an attempt to repaint the circular elements. But they were permanent--they were bolted to the ground.
George Sugarman, part of the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
So what did this thing look like when it was installed up in St. Paul? I have found a few photos online.
George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
This last photo is quite interesting. It's from the website of Lippincott, a firm that specializes in the fabrication and conservation of large metal sculptures. The man in the picture is George Sugarman.