Dale Eldred Dale Eldred ( b . Minneapolis , Minnesota 1933 ; d . Kansas City , Missouri 1993 ) was an internationally acclaimed sculptor renowned for large - scale sculptures that emphasized both natural and generated light . Biography . The grandson of Finnish immigrant builders , Eldred was raised in Minnesota . Eldred moved to Kansas City in 1959 , fresh out of the University of Michigan . Within a year , he was named chairman of the sculpture department of Kansas City Art Institute . Eldred possessed an imposing physical presence and was a college football fullback . He was known to be resilient in the face of challenge , such as the fire in 1991 that destroyed a studio that contained his library and many valuable artworks . Eldred chaired the sculpture department at KCAI for 33 years , exerting a powerful influence on thousands of students , including : James Clover , Gary Freeman , Shawn Brixey , Ming Fay , Michael Rees , John E . Buck , and the collaborative couple , ( the late ) Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler who met at KCAI . He also was the artistic director of Biosphere II , and was a fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Advanced Visual Studies . Dale Eldred was a victim of the " 500 - year " flood in the summer of 1993 , when the Missouri River inundated parts of Kansas City . He was killed in a fall trying to rescue equipment in his West Bottoms - neighborhood studio . Sculpture . Eldred ' s early sculptures were large works in clay . Influenced by the monumental steel sculptures of David Smith and Alexander Calder , he began to work in steel , wood and other materials , creating large sculptures and environments . Examples of these include a sculpture composed of a pair of large cantilevered slabs of wood and steel , placed near the entrance of the Kansas City Art Institute ; and a park in northern Kansas City , Missouri housing a large stone and lumber environment . His work of this time was reviewed favorably by critic and artist Donald Judd . Eldred was commissioned to redesign downtown Kansas City , Kansas . His challenging modernist design included futuristic fountains , irregular streets , and steel curbs . Received poorly , its unpopularity led the city to modify much of his work , but aspects still exist today . Eldred expressed his desire to reveal natural phenomena . He created a towering sculpture in a Kansas City park that sprayed water in order to create prismatic light refractions . His emphasis increasingly focused on light ; he used mirrors , pure pigments , gas flames , fluorescent paint , refraction tape , glass , neon tubes and other materials to create light effects . " I want the sculptures to remind us all , " he said , " that our lives are inextricably linked to light , and that our universe is in constant motion . " In collaboration with choreographer Todd Bolender , he created the set and costumes for " Voyager , " a ballet performed by the State Ballet of Missouri . He collaborated with other highly regarded artists and musicians , including composer Philip Glass . Commissions , Museums and Private Collections . United States . Arizona Colorado Florida Illinois Iowa Kansas Michigan Minnesota Missouri North Carolina Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Tennessee Utah Virginia Wisconsin Awards and honors . He received numerous awards and honors , including a Guggenheim Fellowship and grants from the Ford Foundation , the American Institute of Architects and the National Endowment of the Arts . Publications . Ralph Coe . Dale Eldred : Sculpture Into Environment , ISBN 0 - 7006 - 0159 - 7 , Regents Press Kansas , 1978 .