Posted on 08/27/2012 7:37:09 AM PDT by kevcol
BERKELEY -- When Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last year, thousands of employees were let go, dozens of vendors were left high and dry, hundreds of millions of dollars were lost -- and millions of glass tubes were abandoned in a San Jose warehouse.
Now some of those tubes, a signature design element of the company's cylindrical solar panels, have found a second life as modern art. Yet like so much about Solyndra, they've become another flash point in the controversy surrounding the Fremont company.
Oakland architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello used 1,368 of the glass tubes to create "SOL Grotto," an architectural sculpture on display in the lush grounds of the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley.
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"I'm trying to run a small business, and this was just a mess of our tax dollars," he said. "Obama visited Solyndra and was saying how great it is, but little guys like us were left holding the bag."
Ashley spent weeks on the phone with bankruptcy attorneys, trying to figure out what to do with all the tubes. He was ultimately told that they had no value and that they were now his responsibility.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
rough calculation......half a billion dollars pissed away at Solyndra......1368 glass tubes used for art.....
Roughly $365,500 per tube......great piece of taxpayer- funded quack art....
The ‘artists’ had some feeling that this was somehow redemptive? Explainable?
Gives you a good feeling that you (as a small business) contributed your fair share!
Looks like a great place for insects to nest in and for some reason Peter, Paul & Mary’s “If I Had A Hammer” comes to mind.
Ha ha...collectively, they would rival the most expensive condo high-rises in Manhattan.....
it would only be fitting if they got a couple million dollar NEA grant for their art installation...
Hey, it’s Berkeley...couldn’t they’ve sold those to the local head shops to make bongs?
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