Forty-four leaded glass panels hang from the ceiling of Dow Hall’s central entranceway. Suspended at various heights and angles they present a shifting array of colorful, overlapping forms that change as a viewer traverses the main east-west corridor.

Vibrant with translucent colored glass and framed in silver-painted steel, each panel incorporates interior silver lines—the “lead” in leaded glass—that create illustrations relating to OIT’s scientific culture and educational mission.

While the “galleries” of stained glass are engaging in themselves, there is a larger and more profound compositional dynamic at play—a 3D anamorphosis. Two of them, in fact. When seen from specific vantage points, the panels optically collapse to form epic images: an anatomical human heart and a cross section of the human brain.

These macrocosmic formations slowly come together as one approaches perspectivally specific “sweet spots”; subsequently they disperse into individual panels as one walks past. Not only is this visual phenomenon intriguing, but it embodies themes of intellectual rigor, serendipity and relativity. As such it reflects the spirit of investigation and discovery at Oregon Tech.

Glass artist Abby Gitlitz fabricated the stained glass.
Born Illustration provided CAD and modeling services.