60-foot sculpture ‘Mercury Falling’ installed atop Irvine apartments

Skyloft Apartments recently installed “Mercury Falling,” a 60-foot sculpture that looks like shiny liquid pouring from atop the building’s roof to the ground below.

‘Mercury Falling,” a 60-foot sculpture by Laguna Beach artist Jorg Dubin, is installed at Skyloft Apartments in Irvine. (Courtesy of Jorg Dubin)

Next time you’re at the corner of Jamboree and Main in Irvine, look up.

Yes, you might see an airplane with its landing gear coasting toward nearby John Wayne Airport … but you also might see what looks like molten metal pouring off an apartment complex.

Skyloft Apartments recently installed “Mercury Falling,” a 60-foot sculpture that looks like shiny liquid pouring from atop the building’s roof to the ground below. The piece by Laguna Beach artist Jorg Dubin was commissioned by Sanderson J. Ray Development, owner of Skyloft.

“As the building architecture is quite contemporary and hard-edged, the need for something more organic that would act as a foil against the angular building and bring some needed softness as it reflected nature and the surrounding sky,” Dubin said. “Mercury Falling was a result of many design iterations. It is also a metaphor for the hope that humans will act on climate change so that the ‘mercury’ or temperatures will ‘fall.’ ”

The six-story Skyloft opened in late 2019 and has 388 studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments that rent from $3,308 to $7,706 monthly.

The apartments were built by Streetlights Residential, designed by Architects Orange (AO) and professionally managed by Legacy Partners.