ECOSCULPTURES AT ATLANTA BOTANICAL GARDENS

When the renowned Atlanta Botanical Gardens puts on a special exhibit it always attracts bigger crowds, but the Imaginary Worlds Exhibit pulled  out all the stops and record physical crowds were even joined this time by a digital audience!

The center piece of Imaginary Worlds are the huge ecosculptures, some towering 25 feet high. One sculpture alone carries an incredible 18,000 annuals all supported by a Hot-Dip Galvanized exoskeleton. Different times of day and the passing seasons insure that they never look the same twice. This is doubly true during Garden Lights, Holiday Nights, when these ecosculptures transform, aglow with thousands and thousands of tiny colored lights.

One sculpture alone carries an incredible 18,000 annuals all supported by a Hot-Dip Galvanized exoskeleton. Different times of day and the passing seasons insure that they never look the same twice.

The 2018 hit Netflix film, “Nappily Ever After”, grew the digital audience into the millions when the star actress visits the exhibition on camera in a key plot device!

Much like a World’s Fair the original 2013 Imaginary Worlds Exhibit was designed to be temporary but certain sculptures like Earth Goddess were so popular and striking they became permanent. But sadly, only a handful of years later the painted steel exoskeletons proved no match for the automated watering system that kept those tens of thousands flowering annuals healthy and the many tons of suspended soil perpetually wet, an ideal environment for rust!

So for the 2018 version of the Exhibition Acme Décor’s artisans in Beloeil Canada went to work again fabricating additional exoskeletons for several new ecosculptures. This time with one vital difference, these were to be protected by Hot-Dip Galvanizing. Designed to be light for both cost and accessibility reasons the small diameter bar stock of these exoskeletons are by design susceptible to failure by corrosion. The complex three dimensional shapes renders complete painting coverage nearly impossible. Furthermore constant planting, pruning and weeding work not to mention transport and assembly constantly causes further paint failures and degradation. By comparison the rugged strength of Hot-Dip and its full immersion principle meets these challenges effortlessly.

The low cost and quick turnaround as well as the large dimension local zinc baths made Hot-Dip the easy choice as well as the right choice. As such with the incredible corrosion resisting power of pure natural zinc these new ecosculptures should easily live on for decades and decades!

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