- September 16th, 2006, 9:41 am
#30212
From the fishwrap:
LU putting its mark on mountainhttp://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... ws!archive
By Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
September 15, 2006
L U
In just a few days, those two letters, symbolic of Liberty University, will be part of the Candlers Mountain landscape in Lynchburg.
LU has already started cutting trees to give the 200-foot letters their shape.
When completed, the letters - called a mountain monogram - should be visible to travelers along U.S. 460, shoppers at River Ridge mall and football fans at LU’s Williams Stadium.The appearance of the letters, which each will cover two-thirds of a football field in length, is still a work in progress. They will be placed on the mountain across from the former Ericsson plant, now LU’s North Campus.
School officials are following a suggestion from Lynchburg city officials, who want the letters to be made out of trees or other vegetation.
“If we stick with the vegetation, we’ll have to plant evergreens or you won’t see it at all during the winter,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., LU’s vice chancellor.
If vegetation doesn’t work, the school will make the letters out of white landscaping stone.
LU has called in lighting experts to determine how best to illuminate the letters at night.
One suggestion is to use solar panels and batteries to give the letters light.
“We think it is going to look pretty sharp,” said S. Lee Beaumont, LU’s director of auxiliary services.
Falwell said the process of making the letters right could take a year or more.
“The city of Lynchburg asked us to experiment with letters made of vegetation first,” he said.
“So we are cutting trees on three acres except for the trees that are in the letters themselves. So the first letters you’ll see will be made out of trees.”
Falwell is not sure that the letters made from trees will be visible enough.
Early next week, Williams Electrical Supply, a Roanoke firm, will place test lights at the base of the trees to see if the letters will show up.
“There’s going to be a lot of trial and error on this project,” Falwell said.
“Green against green might not work very well. There is no reference manual you can read that would tell you how to make a mountain monogram.”
Out West, colleges such as Brigham Young University and Arizona State University have monograms on surrounding mountainsides. The Brigham Young monogram is a huge “Y” and the Arizona State monogram is a large “A”.
“We had a local firm, Perkins & Orrison, survey the area for us,” Beaumont said.
“They surveyed a three-acre oval. Then they surveyed the outer edges of the ‘L’ and ‘U’. So our guys, who are up there cutting, know not to cut inside the purple flags.”
Once the letters are completed, Falwell hopes they will become part of LU tradition.
“Most of the colleges that have mountain monograms, the students become the ones taking care of the letters,” he said.
“It becomes a school spirit type of thing. Each class adds something unique. This will be something that we’ll be working on for years.”
- By jmclaughlin
- By ECC29