Pioneer Police Precinct
– A Community Resource

A field trip to the Pioneer Police Station with activities designed to help students understand the use of good design and art as an important aspect of the building and a contributing factor to its mission as a community center.

Outside
1. Examine the outside of the building. What are your impressions of this place from it’s outside appearance? Friendly, pretty, scary…
2. What specific design features are causing this reaction?

Inside
1. Notice the layout of the building and the large installation art pieces on the walls.
2. What do these pieces communicate to you? How do you think that they relate to the Police Department?

The Art
The work is called “Pythagoras” and relates to the concept of Law & Order.
The interior forms relate to the ideal of the law, while the exterior form relates to the application of the law.

Dan Gerhart named this work – a series of interior wall pieces and an outdoor sculpture along the Jordan River – after the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras. With the design based on the mathematical laws inherent in the circle, square, and triangle, the artwork relates visually to the shield or badge that identifies police officers and philosophically to the Police Department’s work to maintain order in our society.

The mathematical theories of Pythagoras were one source of inspiration for Gerhart, as were a number of other systems of the natural order and its relationship to the societal order. The Mayan calendar, based on the mathematical symmetries and the basic shapes of triangles, circles and squares, provided a foundation for the development of Gerhart’s work. Many cultures share a common language of these basic shapes, with the circle often the universal symbol for harmony and order.

The indoor works – “the Triangle,” “The Circle,” “The Square,” and “Theorem” – are fabricated of bronze cast by the artist in the lost-wax technique and a variety of wood veneers. The outdoor work, The Sphere,” is fabricated of cast bronze and polished stainless steel. Shawn Porter assisted Gerhart in the fabrication and installation of the work; Larry Wheeler fabricated the stainless steel elements of the outdoor work.