Located in front of Webb Hall

Phillips derived his inspiration for this design from a tiny seashell. He capitalizes on the spiral motif and its many allusions creating art that speaks to nature, the intellect, and the merging of nature and human activity. This natural spiral form, made of bronze, represents the flow of time and growth and references the ancient Greek mathematical principle of the Golden Mean (a series of proportions that were allegedly used in ancient Greek architecture, most notably the Parthenon at the Acropolis). Significantly, the Golden Mean underlies the Principle of Thirds, a compositional rule used in photography and painting. This fluid form, placed within the context of the geometrically rigid grid of bricks composing Spiral Plaza, asks us to wrestle with the shifting role of nature in people’s lives. Placed in front of Webb Hall, which houses The School of Arts and Sciences, Spiral Plaza speaks to mathematics, natural sciences, history, and human behavior.