Entry No. 25 — the Charlotte file — filed under: outdoor
Pillars of Dreams
Designed by Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY, this 26-foot-tall outdoor installation resembles a cloud-like magenta and blue pavilion rooted to the earth by nine bulbous legs. The structure is constructed from two super-thin, interlaced layers of perforated aluminum.
The story
You wouldn't expect to stumble upon a hallucinatory, double-layered aluminum cloud sitting outside a suburban Mecklenburg County municipal building on Freedom Drive, but that is precisely where it lives. Commissioned by the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Public Art initiative and designed by architect Marc Fornes and his studio THEVERYMANY, *Pillars of Dreams* looks less like routine civic decor and more like an alien organism that landed on the plaza and decided to root itself into the concrete.
Standing 26 feet high outside the Valerie C. Woodard Center, the pavilion is constructed entirely from ultra-thin perforated aluminum sheets assembled in two interlaced layers. Thousands of individual cutout patterns gradient from white and soft blue along the exterior shell into intense, saturated magenta along the underside. The hollow legs rise from the earth and merge overhead into a continuous, self-supporting canopy held together purely by geometry and rivets, with no internal beams or support columns hidden inside.
What it's like
Head to the front plaza of 3205 Freedom Drive in West Charlotte. Because it sits outside a functioning county service building, parking is simple and the plaza is quiet, especially on weekends or late afternoons. Time your visit for a clear, sunny day: standing directly inside the hollow center allows direct sunlight to stream through thousands of tiny geometric cuts in the aluminum, projecting a dense web of light and shadow across the pavement beneath your feet.
The move: Walk inside the hollow center of the pavilion on a bright afternoon to see sunlight cast thousands of tiny geometric patterns across the ground beneath you.
- 📍 West Charlotte
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: 3205 Freedom Dr, Charlotte, NC 28208
Hours: Added 2026-07-21 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Experience Anatomy — Pair this outdoor structural oddity with a visit to West Charlotte's private anatomical education lab under two miles down the road.
- Firebird ("Disco Chicken") — Continue a tour of Charlotte's unexpected public art by visiting Niki de Saint Phalle's mirror-tiled Firebird sculpture three miles away in Uptown.
- Blume Studios — Follow up an open-air architectural canopy with an immersive art experience inside a repurposed historic pipe foundry in the nearby Iron District.
Good to know
Where exactly is Pillars of Dreams located?
It stands on the public outdoor plaza directly outside the Valerie C. Woodard Center at 3205 Freedom Drive in West Charlotte.
Is there an admission fee or ticket required?
No, it is a public art installation located outdoors and free to visit at any time.
Who created the sculpture?
It was designed by Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY and commissioned by Mecklenburg County through the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Public Art program.
What is the pavilion made out of?
It is built from two thin, structural layers of perforated aluminum fastened together with thousands of custom rivets and painted in shades of blue, white, and magenta.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: charlottesgotalot.com · charlotteobserver.com · theverymany.com · archdaily.com · thisiscolossal.com
last checked: 2026-07-21