Howard Ben Tré’s “Column 36,” a 97-inch tall translucent sculpture of green cast glass and copper, is on loan from the artist to the Business School. The free-standing, 500-pound sculpture is one of the largest pieces in the school’s growing art collection, which numbers more than 50 works and includes masterpieces by such American artists as Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Sean Scully and Frank Stella. All the art works are gifts or on loan to the school.

Here, staff of Artpack Services Inc. of Farmington Hills unpack and assemble the sculpture in the William Davidson Hall lobby.

Ben Tré, who is known internationally for his pioneering work in cast glass, loaned “Column 36” to the school “to help students see that art is part of our lives. I try to take the magic that happens in my studio into the public realm,” he says.

“Column 36” is part of a series of sculptures created by the Providence, R.I., artist that includes columns, vessels, implements, benches and wrapped forms. Many of Ben Tré’s cast glass and metal pieces are architectural installations in public places. His work is part of many private and public collections, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum of Art.

“Column 36,” cast in 1986 and first shown at the Charles Cowles Gallery in New York City, originally was purchased by a firm in Irvine, Calif. It was damaged in a 1991 earthquake. Ben Tré remade “Column 36” in 1998 and added it to his personal collection. —Mary Jo Frank, Business School