TAXI, Denver, Colorado
August 2007

Lighting Collaboration with Mickey Zeppelin Susan Wick, and visiting artists Sheri Mah and Mary White

This project was a collaboration to illuminate and highlight a fragment of Leadville, Colorado bottle history.  The project took place in the TAXI, a  mixed use development started in 2001 on the site of the abandoned Yellow Cab taxi dispatch center and corporate headquarters on the west banks of the Platte River former flood zone, in the River North (RiNo) area of downtown Denver. The site currently has two buildings TAXI 1, a single story office building, and TAXI 2, a mixed use building that includes for office, retail, restaurant Fuel and residential, with a synergy of great design, creative community and innovative urbanism.

History
Michey Zeppelin, TAXI complex visionary, dug up ancient bottles from the Leadville dump for many years and gathered a comprehensive collection. The many bottles brought to Leadville Colorado in the 1800′s contained medicine, liquor and food supplies and gave a fascinating view of early mountain life.

Mickey was looking for ways to show his less significant but interesting bottles at TAXI and share the history. He asked his partner, artist Susan Wick, to lead a bottle lighting project.  Susan organized and led a residency for Cheri Mah and myself with a goal of creating bottle chandeliers for the public spaces in the newly constructed TAXI 2 building, showing the range of historical bottle use in Leadville.