Hey Pan fans--you might remember a post I wrote six years ago about corporate sculpture. One of the things I wrote about at the time was how a large sculpture from 1971 by George Sugarman, called variously the Saint Paul Commission or the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, had been purchased by commercial real estate firm Grubb & Ellis and dismembered. The firm used the dismembered parts to decorate various office properties it owned in Houston, Austin, and I believe in the Woodlands (north of Houston). (Grubb & Ellis went bankrupt in 2012, so I wonder who now owns all these scraps of Sugarman's sculpture.) Three years later, I happened across a piece of the Sugarman sculpture in Austin. And this morning, as I walked through back streets in Montrose, I found some more pieces of it.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibk_TDDR9Jfu4SD0J4A8n-ofJ4h4bnAY3vUK0Aho0PouTvV_hfaA9r4A9FAislshy_3N2rC5GAF7q1ZGPMFwUL0IV9SgEtIwLOqkSSw-ewYK4qMjyo1pqLMl3k70jQlb9unvgOudBT318/s640/Hyde+Park+1.jpg)
George Sugarman, part of the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
Unlike the other pieces I've seen, these two were not well-maintained or marked with a plaque. The black struts had bits of blue paint from what I assume was an attempt to repaint the circular elements. But they were permanent--they were bolted to the ground.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWN3HYeA06a5HXM_E3U4kJKmHwqY53wdRsfr63U_HMfA0LjgMXl_I0OePThhBG-QtJt769VHfcjKnbNHSQKABmifVSE5sMika1ArczF8hGAu1Ca0GdUhgI8RwRuylxLFnudCotUOpyPQ/s640/hyde+Park+2.jpg)
George Sugarman, part of the Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
So what did this thing look like when it was installed up in St. Paul? I have found a few photos online.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt5IeWh_JeN9NP8ox0sndlJOpMCOXT6LYa_G-JwODrtExNmjdI9qiuc_jYg4k98VTMvKjW_WDy0DvSxBnFglPbpnTXmNcjifgN2_-SjfIpNbZolS5wG42LWtlvEmfbSkg2T2bd13BCfCA/s1600/2192995736_9e23a60752.jpg)
George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin8mlAC8uiWAD0oIItTQK814YGwbev5UkGQZ6Rd8kBVBTD34p9N-lTbZy4fcb0_mjfsxBMu_guu6lyd-QuYeBvtQcHo-41riCRMuLjS5H-fU1Zsnw5fnzzV7Qml91oH-UCT3ZfeENerBc/s640/2192998012_0ac64c1891_b.jpg)
George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2hw9C3Y3KUJHjqNNU39HnSH_RGYJJbV3jWtPMrRj48xstHyIrN7DmveV-xHEPLBiWea-IP85e0htVARLVbv-KaPlUihu_h4jH9w582kFe7zUzcf3pyZeu1j8eapdWp6FQn05ErOzR8fA/s1600/10.jpg)
George Sugarman, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, 1971
This last photo is quite interesting. It's from the website of Lippincott, a firm that specializes in the fabrication and conservation of large metal sculptures. The man in the picture is George Sugarman.