First Night globe may be year-round attraction
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NORTHAMPTON - Designers of a new globe-shaped ball that will be the centerpiece of the city's New Year's Eve activities are pitching a plan to keep the sculpture up permanently atop Hotel Northampton.
If approved by various city officials, the globe would remain on display in its current location on the hotel's roof beyond New Year's Eve. A light show would illuminate the globe at the top of every hour, mimicking, on a much smaller scale, an hourly light show at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Earlier this year, a group of designers and engineers under the direction of sculptor Sam Ostroff and mechanical engineer Stephen Smith began to work on creating a new ball that would replace the weather-beaten metal sphere that had been used to ring in the new year for the last 2 decades.
They came up with the globe, a $30,000 creation that is 6 feet in diameter and weighs 300 pounds. The globe's continents are made of copper and the meridians of stainless steel.
As the globe took shape, Smith and others began to think it should be on display for more than one night a year.
"Along the way, as it started to get nicer and nicer, we thought it would be a shame to cover it with a tarp for the rest of the year," said Smith.
A lighting system on the globe contains 350 computer-controlled LED and strobe lights. A light show for New Year's eve has been designed by Nan Zhang of the Smith College theater department.
Smith said the globe's permanent light show will create a very brief effect.
"It's mostly a sculpture with soft lighting," he said.
On New Year's eve, the globe will climb a 24-foot mast - the reverse of the ball that falls at Time Square in New York City - to cap off the city's First Night activities. The mast would be removed should the globe remain on top of the hotel permanently.
Because the structure is not permanently fixed to the building, it won't be raised up the mast if winds on Dec. 31 climb to 25 mph or faster. The globe has an 800-pound base to keep it from tipping.
To make the structure permanent, the project must win approval from two city government bodies and the building commissioner.
The first of those approvals came last Monday night when the Central Business Architecture Committee approved allowing the ball to stay up permanently without conditions. The committee determined the globe would cause no detrimental impact to the building, said Peg Keller, a senior planner with the Office of Planning and Development.
"We thought it was a nice artistic addition to downtown and matches with the sign they recently put up," said Keller.
The plan for permanency now moves to the Planning Board, which must approve the use of lights. That hearing is scheduled for Jan. 8. Smith said the group has applied for a building permit retroactively and that permit is in the works.
Mansour Ghalibaf, owner of Hotel Northampton, said he thinks people will be excited about the project.
"I asked the sculptor to make the new ball a work of art that would be beautiful, both during the day, as well as at night when it would be illuminated," he said in press release.
The money to pay for the globe is being covered by grants from the hotel, Florence Savings Bank and other donors. Earlier this year, it was announced that the New Year's ball in Times Square will also be kept on display throughout the year.
Chad Cain can be reached at ccain@gazettenet.com.
