NCSU Libraries

Volume 25 number 3 - Spring 2005

Joe Cox Color Wall Restoration Update

By Karen Ciccone, Natural Resources Library

Evening passersby on Hillsborough Street will notice the return of a campus landmark, the colorful and ever-changing Color Wall designed by Joe Cox. The kinetic light mural, completed in 1972, is visible through the windowed first floor of the D. H. Hill Library tower. Once an iconic feature of the NC State campus, many long-time members of the community regretted when the piece fell into disrepair. The recovery of the artist's original wiring diagrams and color charts by members of the University Art Acquisitions Committee allowed a restoration effort to begin (see Focus 23:3 (2003): 17-18 for the related story).

NCSU Chancellor John T. Caldwell commissioned the piece to form an integral part of the D. H. Hill Library tower. Cox (1915-1997), best known for his paintings, served as a faculty member in the School of Design from 1954 until 1980. He also created light murals elsewhere in the state, although the only other one still extant is in the ceiling of the Central Carolina Bank Building in Durham (1967). This mural is currently in a state of disrepair. The successful restoration of the Libraries' Color Wall has raised hopes within the arts community of restoring the Durham piece as well.

The Libraries' Color Wall now operates from approximately 5:00 P.M. until midnight every night. It consists of twenty-three lights in seven different colors that shine on the wall, creating lighter hues in their overlap. Black metal vanes on the wall cast shadows, themselves multi-colored due to the selective blocking of light. A mechanical timer operates the lights, causing the pattern to change approximately every four seconds. The result is a kinetic display of hundreds of vertical bands of intense color.

A few adjustments still need to be made to the timer mechanism to align it with the original specifications of the piece. This repair is on hold until additional funding is secured. Donations to complete restoration of the Color Wall and to help maintain it and other works of art in the Libraries' collection can be sent to the Development Office, NCSU Libraries, Campus Box 7111, Raleigh, N.C. 27695. Please make checks payable to the Friends of the Library. Donations to this fund are fully tax-deductible.