Artisan

BY KIMBERLY MACARTHUR GRAHAM

>>> Mark Knutson, Kason Group, Tijeras, New Mexico

Conjuring up sensual metal elements that bridge architecture and sculpture is, for Mark Knutson, nirvana. "I love architecture," begins a conversation with the articulate Knutson, who holds degrees in both architecture and in sculpture. "It's impossible not to get a feeling from a building." Growing up in Chicago, and, as a teen, taking part in the family masonry restoration business, Knutson was stimulated and encouraged to pursue architecture as a profession.

He studied, worked with, and learned from some of the greats, including Stanley Tigerman and David Chipperfield, and, after receiving his degree in architecture from the University of Illinois–Chicago, decided to change course. "It was very frustrating to not be making decisions on materials, so I decided to go for sculpture because I could work directly with it. I was attracted to the medium of metal. I'm still amazed by how much I don't know; I think I can do this, but it's a material that has its own entity; it does its own thing."

While earning his MFA in sculpture from the esteemed Cranbrook Academy of Art, Knutson noted how differently art and artistry was introduced there versus in the architecture realm. From this observation, a career began to be revealed, a niche found at the intersection of art and architecture.

Mark Knutson in the doorway of the Sky City Cultural Center.

Kason Group, the Tijeras, New Mexico–based company Knutson runs with managing partner Sara Cummings, specializes in site-specific pieces. (The firm name recalls Knutson's college days, during which he began signing "K-son" as clever shorthand for his name and a play on the architectural term "caisson.") Far from limiting what Kason's artists accomplish, this way of working allows them to express every project's unique attributes as an aesthetic and considered response. Too, each project and client presents different needs, and Kason Group responds with a spectrum of services from full design to fabrication, to suit the architect or designer. Though he enjoys the variety of projects and personalities, Knutson especially relishes those projects where he has a freer rein. "I love going on a project where they know what they want, but they don't know how to do it [in metal]. Then you're bringing a lot to the table."

Kason's portfolio fully reveals the firm's adeptness at satisfying both aesthetic and functional considerations. Commissions for private homes include a range of individual sculptural and architectural elements such as doors, gates, railings, light fixtures and even water features. All marry clean lines with a sophisticated interactivity with elements such as water, sky or light. Knutson also has done hospitality projects, including work for Zinc Wine Bar and Bistro in Albuquerque and the La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona.

Of the firm's growing sector of public projects, two New Mexico projects really stand out: B'nai Israel Synagogue in Albuquerque and Sky City Cultural Center at Acoma Pueblo, which was recently awarded a Special Jury Prize in Southwest Contractor's Best of 2006 Awards.

B'nai Israel Synagogue is a model of restrained beauty. Not glittering, but radiating, its interior is an inspired synthesis of form and finish. Kason's gracefully elongated light fixtures are a perfect example of this harmony, their curve matching that begun by the half-moon windows and echoed in the vaulted wood ceiling; their uniquely treated, custom-abraded copper finish is in tune with the building's generous use of that rosy metal. The fixtures seem to soar above the congregation, hovering just close enough to whisper protection and warmth.

Kason Group's work for the Sky City Cultural Center includes a serpentine window and pivot door.

Despite its minimalist appearance, the project was complicated. The size of the valence alone — 120 feet — presented technical challenges, plus copper is a very petulant metal with which to work. Explains Knutson, "Copper is very touchy, very hard to handle. It discolors easily, so during this project we were always gloved. If you look at it wrong, it will ding." In typical fashion, Knutson divined the best way to handle the metal, even devising a machine to abrade the surface before clear-coating it to give it a luscious, but pleasingly homogeneous, pattern that would hide the inevitable minor imperfections.

Sky City Cultural Center, completed for New Mexico's Acoma Pueblo (known as Sky City, and claimed to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the United States), is a collaboration with Woodmetalconcrete Architecture and Barbara Felix Architecture & Design. Like the synagogue project, this cultural center presented a handful of challenges, but resulted in a harmonious, logical whole. One of myriad impressive details is the svelte 40-foot-long serpentine window, which offers a rich complement to the creamy masonry and square proportions of the building. Though fabricated of six separate structural steel elements, the window presents a monolithic face. To achieve such "simple" elegance, each piece must be joined, then welded and ground numerous times. This window, its surface etched and silk-screened with an Acoma pottery pattern extrapolated by the architectural team, required an insane amount of time to complete — Knutson estimates somewhere between 800 and 900 man-hours.

Fortunately, spending 900 hours crafting the perfect window frame — or light fixture, or balustrade — does not seem insane to Knutson. It seems just right. "My love and my passion is making every piece the best and most beautiful thing that I can."