Industry Profile: Don Macdonald - "The Tender"

Original retaining walls in Cairns CBD

In the previous weeks we have seen how Don’s team from The Orchid Group^ gained the necessary experience from other mosaic art projects, and in particular artworks in the Indigenous genre to prepare them for the Cairns project.  Last time we looked at "More Artworks Follow", this week we look at the tendering process.

The Shields Street Mosaic project consists of eight low retaining walls with 20 round knobs on the end of the walls that snaked around existing landscaping in the main mall of Shields Street in the Cairns CBD.  The imagery was supplied by artists from the nearby Yarrabah Indigenous community and the medium was 10x10mm artistic (hand-cut) glass mosaics totaling 164/m².  The work was to be completed in two stages in line with the other major construction works.

The original retaining walls were core filled masonry block walls clad in a 100x100mm vitrified tile finishing with a square edge at the junction of the vertical and horizontal faces. During the life of the original work the external square edges had been badly damaged and looked unsightly.

At Don’s first meeting with Cairns Regional Council he emphasised for the work to survive and for Council to receive longevity on their investment, the external edges needed to be removed and 100mm radii shaped to both the front and back edges.  From experience he knew that this was the best radius for the laying of small mosaics to achieve a smooth transition from one plane to the other. Don’s rationale was the mosaics would be much stronger if surrounded by other mosaics on a similar plane whereas meeting at a hard external corner they would be exposed and subjected to accidental or malicious damage far more easily. Continue reading here. 

Next time, "The Preparation of the Walls".

Contact us on 1800 331 012 for technical support, arrange a demo, free samples, a trade event, or to discuss your next project or contact us here.

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^The Orchid Group is also known as Symmetry Mosaics.