Cardinal

Across the street from the nation’s largest urban state park, Indiana’s state bird—the northern cardinal—perches atop a branch of Indiana’s state tree, the tulip poplar (the leaves of which form a stage in the JW Marriott’s plaza).

Standing nearly 36 feet tall, the Cardinal’s recycled aluminum exterior is wrapped around a steel infrastructure. The piece’s riveted streamline design pays tribute to the technological innovations fostered by the Indianapolis 500—while the lines of the tulip tree, etched into the plaza’s concrete, form a dimensional backdrop.