We Forge Ideas into Light: The University of Wyoming Gateway Center Project

The University of Wyoming greets students and alumni with the magnificent Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center on the Laramie campus.  The new building showcases lighting by Frontier Ironworks Inc.

The Gateway Center focuses on the history of Wyoming and the University’s impact on the state in its exhibit content and by using design themes and materials indigenous to Wyoming. Wyoming artisans were contracted to bring the building to life and to demonstrate their exceptional skills.

Frontier Ironworks was selected to create custom interior lighting for several key private and public spaces at The Gateway Center. To that end, Frontier Ironworks, based in Buffalo, Wyoming, collaborated with Wyoming blacksmith, J.T. Craft, to develop a beautiful collection of custom interior lighting for the building with design themes inspired by history, nature and indigenous gemstones, rocks and minerals of Wyoming.

The Brown-eyed Susan flower is the inspiration for the University of Wyoming’s brown and yellow signature colors. Inspired by the hardy Wyoming flower, the main event ballroom features eight large ceiling fixtures in the form of the Brown-eyed Susan. Through sleek ironwork and translucent natural materials, the ceiling chandeliers echo the University's colors.

In the President's Room, the Frontier Ironworks team created four chandeliers that continue the flower theme, while introducing mica as the diffuser material as a nod to one of the more notable minerals of Wyoming.

Frontier’s mica “Legacy” chandeliers light and decorate the high-traffic grand staircase and are hung at staggered lengths so a visitor can be eye-level with the translucent collage of Wyoming mica ornaments used in the large vertical chandeliers.

The team finished their contribution with iron wall sconces, placed intermittently throughout the center. These ironworks also include the mica element, as well as the University's traditional bucking horse and cowboy symbol.

All these interior lighting elements were designed, crafted and installed by Frontier Ironworks Inc.