In 1962, the Cal Poly Pomona Kellogg campus held its annual open house activities including displays by the Landscape Architecture Department of student work and landscape garden vignettes.Classmates Robert R (Bob) Cardoza and Richard Jones designed and built a water sculpture from I-beam construction steel emphasizing line repetition.
The Voorhis Campus staff was impressed by the sculptural artwork and soon after that 1962 Open House (now called Poly Vue) invited the landscape artists to consider designing a sculptural element for the existing entry pond site on the Voorhis Campus in San Dimas, CA.Original designer, Bob Cardoza (Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture Class of 1964) accepted the challenge and contacted the Cal Poly Metal Process and Welding Department to again request permission to use their facilities and scrap metal to begin building a metal sculpture.
Bob selected curved metal straps of various sizes to follow the original artwork’s concept of line and form repetition then welded the forms to create the new art piece.The entire metal form was torched to produce an organic quality for greater interest and meaning.The sculpture was then acid washed and metal coated to preserve the steel plates from rusting.Bob then placed the sculpture in the Voorhis Campus entry pond where the campus maintenance crew connected the sculpture/fountain to the water supply.The placement of the sculpture in the pond took place in 1963 and was the last time the piece was seen by Bob Cardoza; until he saw it sitting adjacent to the entrance of Kellogg West Conference Center in March 2011.
His artistic philosophy has always been:A love of the land is most fully expressed in the preservation of its beauty and integrity; where an active quest for the refinement, delicacy, and subtle qualities of the designed landscape is tempered by the pragmatic and aesthetic needs of the present and incorporated into a creative vision for the future. In 1967 Western States Corrosion Seminar held its first seminar on the Cal Poly Voorhis campus.Committee members noticed the sculpture in the fountain and decided to use it as its logo.In 1972, committee members were approached by Voorhis Campus staff to take the sculpture with them to the new Kellogg West Conference Center opening on the Cal Poly Pomona campus.The sculpture was placed into a small concrete container and a bronze plaque was installed.Since then the sculpture has been located in several locations around the Kellogg West Conference Center, sometimes as a fountain. When Bob Cardoza saw his sculpture at Kellogg West in March 2011, he noticed the Western States Corrosion Seminar plaque on his sculpture and notified the Kellogg West staff that he was the artist.Kellogg West staff introduced him to the WSCS committee members at their monthly meeting in April 2011. The sculpture has been used as our logo since 1967.
Mr Cardoza is Founder and President/CEO of NUVIS, a landscape architecture and site planning firm in Costa Mesa, CA, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2011.
Sculpture Presently at Kellogg West
WESTERN STATES CORROSION SEMINAR CP TESTER RECOGNITION COURSE CP RECTIFIER COURSE May 1 to 3, 2012 Kellogg West, Cal Poly Pomona
