PRUMC Atlanta Doves Project
Over the last decade, the Taro’s Origami Studio team has worked on a wide variety of unique projects. We’ve created massive life-sized origami animal sculptures, cruise ship replicas, luxury car commercials, and even custom winter wonderlands.
But our newest project, with over two years of planning, drew on and surpassed everything we’ve done to this point.
For the last 24 months the Taro’s senior design team of Frank Ling and Ben Friesen have worked with the wonderful folks of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta to devise, plan, revise, and test one of the largest origami installations anywhere. This is our behind-the-scenes thread about how we brought this massive vision to life.
1. BRAINSTORMING &
A SITE VISIT
In late 2022, the Taro’s team got a really intriguing request. A church in the south was planning their centennial celebration and they were interested in commissioning a massive origami doves installation, similar to the one recently installed in Washington D.C.
The team was excited about the opportunity and planned a visit to see the space. What they found was a magnificent and cavernous sanctuary, that would require thousands of models to fill. Frank Ling got to work recreating the entire space in renders and dreaming up ways to bring the installation to life.
To start with, the team needed to land on the perfect dove. First of all it needed to be large enough to be seen from up to 60 feet up in the air, and then it also needed to be strong enough so that it wouldn’t droop over the course of the many months that it would be installed. Once the doves were properly designed, there were a number of different approaches to telling their story. The first idea was to have several strands of doves intertwining and circling toward the ceiling.
2. DESIGN REVISIONS
After the first round of designs, there were a lot of conversations with the church about what they thought worked well ,and what needed to be expanded upon. Initially, the church thought 500 doves would be fine, but quickly increased that to over 1,000 after seeing the scaled doves in the rendered space. The next major hurdle was thinking about the rigging system required to bring any of this to life. At this point Frank moved to a more accessible setup of multiple birds on strings draped around different parts of the structure. But while this direction made the setup and installation a lot easier, there was something lost in the overall look.
3. DELIVERY OF THE FINAL DESIGN
For the final round of revisions, the Taro’s staff flew back out to the church and met with the entire team. There were representatives from the lighting, structural engineering, sound, choir, projections, hydraulic lifts, scaffolding, weddings, funerals, and grounds crews present to make sure the design worked for everyone. For the final design Frank landed on a wonderful netting system that can be lowered to the ground for attaching all the doves and then raised into the final place.
Over the course of the trip, the team scheduled all the scaffolding needs, planned out the installation process, and showed off samples of the doves, paper, and netting for confirmation. They then also got the proper attachment hardware pieces approved by an outside engineering team and got the final go ahead to begin production of the entire installation.
4. DOVE PRODUCTION
There is a point in every major project, when all of the design work has been approved and our team of origami professionals can finally do what they do best – fold origami!
For this project the initial installation run was for over 1,000 hand folded origami doves. There were 3 different sizes of doves, 12 inch, 14 inch, and 16 inch. The larger doves were installed be at the back of the flock to create a forced perspective of them getting smaller the higher up they went.
Above are the progress photos of cutting the paper, folding the doves, securing the tails, and rigging the wiring. The original squares ranged in size all the way up to almost 2 feet, and Senior Artists Ben and Jeff made most of the progress throughout the summer, while Frank focused on the rigging components. Sai has also become a master at knot tying and both Ben and Jeff’s creasing hands are sore.
5. TESTING
For this project the team decided on pre-making as much of the project in our Brooklyn studio as possible. That meant building a testing area in a space large enough to spread out and perfect all the netting and attachment points. The first version earlier in the year involved pullies to raise and lower the netting so that the doves can be attached at the correct height. After a few days of trial and error on the test space, the team was able to get a full section of the netting and doves off the ground and displayed.
6. FINE TUNING
Learning from a few earlier installations, Frank decided on a more permanent rigging grid for the testing area. Using solid bolts and turnbuckles, he was able to get a more unified grid. This is the staging area for the rest of production, as the team worked for weeks on cutting, tying and weaving cable through alll of the 6 different nets. These provided the stringing spots for each of the more than 1,000 doves. This system ensured a smooth installation for the final display, and it also allowed the nets to tighten raise up more than pullies alone.
7. MASS PRODUCTION
From there, everything was set in place for building all 6 net sections in advance of the trip to Atlanta. Every single dove was given a specific set of coordinates on an X,Y, and Z axis. The X and Y provided the spot on the netting, and the Z was for the length of the string to attach to the dove.
The Taro’s staff spent weeks carefully measuring, attaching to the netting, and wrapping up the strings so that they didn’t get tangled in transit.
8. INSTALLATION
At long last the first week of November arrived and the crew of 4 origami professionals headed off to Atlanta. Frank drove all the nets and doves down in person to ensure their safe delivery.
Over the course of only 5 days, the team attached pullies, connected the nets to lead lines, unfurled the strings, and attached over 1,000 doves. Despite the sheer size of the installation there were no real delays or unexpected problems with the installation. With the help of the PRUMC team and crane operators, all 6 sections were able to be raised and sinched into place well before the end of the week. Below you can find a timelapse of the installation as well as a slew of fun photos of the team installing the project.
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9. DISPLAY
Finally, here is a collection of photos from the spectacular dedication ceremony the next Sunday. Taro’s Origami and all our staff have been honored to play a part in bringing this dream to life for the people of PRUMC. This installation will remain open until June of 2025 and there are tours you can go on to learn more about the installation when you visit.
