Triforium Creator Dies

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, August 28, 2007, at 03:07PM

Eric Richardson

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Joseph Young, the artist who designed the Triforium, died last week at the age of 87. Aside from the controversial piece atop the LA Mall, Young also designed a large mural inside Parker Center and one on the north face of the Hall of Records.

The lights of the Triforium were relit last December, but the original computer control for lighting and music no longer exists. Though there are still original control programs on paper tape, little else of the original guts remains. The lights are currently on from 6-8 both morning and evening and attempts continue to restore the piece's original functionality.

The Times obit notes that Young's mural on the side of the Hall of Records is currently undergoing renovation, and that work should be completed next month.

Obit noticed via this Paper Mag post.

Comments

Militant Angeleno writes:

Of course, the average cellphone has 10x the processing power of that Trifotium computer.

The Militant has said it before and will say it again: Triforium + iPod Interface = Interactive Awesomeness.

# on Aug.29.2007 AT 01:20 AM

Bert Green writes:

At one of the recent DLANC Arts Committee meetings we discussed exactly that, connecting the Triforium to an iPod. Sounds like a plan to me!

# on Aug.29.2007 AT 02:26 AM

Eric Richardson writes:

It's one thing to just hook the sculpture to sound. General Services has done just that, wiring in a CD player. What's needed is the smarts to make the lights react to the music. That's both a hardware and software solution that would interface with the existing light controller (which has no smarts of its own and just turns lights on or off on command).

# on Aug.29.2007 AT 08:45 AM

kenarch writes:

How cool was it that he got to see the Triforium reactivated before he passed on...

# on Aug.29.2007 AT 08:55 AM