Not Whole Fence pays homage to the simpler days of baseball, riffing on the mythic image of kids to trying to catch a glimpse of the ballgame through a knothole in a wooden fence. Located on a major intersection in El Paso, The work links the ballgame, a playground and the street. It provides the security of a partition, while facilitating coincidental encounters with the game from the sidewalk.
The shape suggests one colossal wood picket turned on its side and wrapped around the stadium, with “knotholes” that are big enough for groups of people to view the game from the sidewalk.
It was fabricated from custom aluminum extrusions. Individual extrusions were CNC milled with a wood grain pattern and anodized a warm copper hue. The grain pattern allows light to pass through the fence while the ribs diffuse the light.
Designers and Principals in Charge: Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues
Project Manager: Mora Nabi
Ball-Nogues Project Team: Andrew Fastman, Michael Anthony Fontana, Christine Forster-Jones, Emma Helgerson, Cory Hill, James Jones, Allison Porterfield, Rafael Sampaio Rocha, Forster Rudolph.
Design and Fabrication and Installation Supervision by Ball-Nogues Studio.
Engineering Consultant: Buro Happold Los Angeles, Jean-Pierre Chakar, PE
Specialty Fabrication and Consulting: Neal Feay Co
Installation Consultant: Industrial Stainless International, Tim Downing
