RSM Design Wins AIGA: Year in Design Awards

Picking Out An Icon: The Buddy Holly Hall Of Performing Arts And Sciences Donor Recognition

RSM Design is excited to announce that the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences donor wall has been recognized with the AIGA: Year in Design Award in the Environmental / Experiential Design. This donor installation wall is composed of cast pewter guitar picks, ranging in size to represent different levels of donor giving. The wall is made up of 9,000 picks, placed to create an image of the classic image of Buddy Holly and his Fender guitar. RSM Design worked alongside Diamond Schmitt Architects, Parkhill Architects, and Brad Oldham to craft this unique installation.

The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences is a space dedicated to music and visual arts, and stands to honor the late Buddy Holly, the music he created, as well as the culture of Lubbock and western Texas. Resulting from years of community studies and focus groups, The Buddy Holly Hall is a state-of-the-art campus which features two theaters, event space, a full-service bistro and a ballet academy under one roof.

RSM Design was given the opportunity to craft a showpiece to accommodate all of the donors for the new 2,300 seat performance hall and at the same time reflect the influence of Lubbock’s most famous native son, Buddy Holly...an icon of music around the world. The overall composition allowed for opportunities to integrate in an artful way the donor recognition program that seamlessly blends with the architectural context. Eleven different sizes of guitar picks were carefully hand cast and hand laid out, each able to accommodate donor recognitions of various hierarchies, representing different levels of giving.

NOTES FROM THE JURY

“Donor walls. Generally a fairly last-minute whack-up of line-over-line names, the long list chiseled in a convenient corner. Not so in this stunning recognition. A festival of indexical hearts creates an image of the musician and his guitar, reminding us that an artist is remembered as long as there are people alive who resonate with their work. Fun, light, but also bittersweet and engaging—like the musician himself—this is a donor wall well worth experiencing.”