Now in progress: a glass branch for Ascent MKE, installing early 2027. Follow the work
Work
Autumn Lundberg
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Ceiling installation, 2024

Heavens Breaking Through

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Site-specific ceiling installations

Designed to complement the space

Autumn Lundberg designs each installation to complement the architecture and character of its space. Her strength is creative direction: shaping the concept, choosing the materials and making the design decisions that feel both exciting and fitting. Trained in industrial design, she leads every project from concept through fabrication and installation, and keeps a library of original ceiling concepts ready to be developed for the right space.

Concept design · Project management · Fabrication · Installation

Commission a ceiling
The original concept image: the loft with a torn opening of wood lath in the ceiling and strands of crystal falling from it, drawn over a photograph of the room.

Concept Image

The concept

From sketch to finished ceiling

Before anything was built, this concept image clearly communicated the design for the client: the torn oak floor opening, the exposed lath and the cascade of crystal falling into the room.

The finished installation in a historic warehouse loft: a jagged opening of wood lath in the ceiling, crystals cascading toward a curved cobalt velvet sofa and tall industrial windows.

Installation no. 1 · Private residence, Milwaukee

Heavens Breaking Through

Artist statement

Heavens Breaking Through is a ceiling installation that evokes the heavens crashing dramatically through the ceiling. Comprised of nature’s elements—Wind/Air (hand-blown glass), Water (sea glass), Earth (natural crystals), and Fire (Fulgurite/lightning glass, and Sahara Desert glass)—it creates a powerful interplay of materials. In direct light, the glass prisms cast rainbows across the space. In darkness, the internal light source illuminates the translucent elements, forming a diffused, sculptural light fixture. This installation invites reflection on the connection of the physical and metaphysical worlds.

The details
Looking up into the cascade: large faceted crystal pendants lit from within, surrounded by strands of rough quartz and small crystal beads.
Lit crystalFaceted crystal, lit from within
A small pyrite cube hanging on a fine silver chain among clear crystals throwing rainbow refractions, the wood lath opening above.
PyriteNatural pyrite on silver chain
Directly beneath the installation: faceted crystal forms at the center with strands of rose and clear quartz radiating out toward the broken wood lath.
From belowCrystal, rose and clear quartz
The installation at dusk: the crystal cascade glowing gold beneath the torn lath ceiling, a pink light cove around the room, a glowing sphere on a table and sunset through the windows.
After darkDusk, with the room lit

From the street

The view from below

From the sidewalk, the windows show what looks like crystals raining in through a broken ceiling. The illusion holds from inside the room and also from the street.

The brick building at night from street level, showcasing the torn ceiling and crystal cascade.
Year
2024
Setting
Private residence, Milwaukee
Structure
Historic warehouse loft
Materials
Italian plaster, wood lath, oak flooring, quartz, crystal, sea glass, fulgurite, blown and faceted glass
Dimensions
14 × 14 × 8 ft

Time-lapse

The Making

  1. Site visit

    Ceiling height and structure, sightlines, and how natural light shifts through the day.

  2. Concept

    Drawings and 3D renderings, a material palette, and a clear budget and schedule.

  3. Fabrication

    Load and mounting details are specified. A full-scale model is built, and the hanging and structural elements are constructed in Lundberg's private studio.

  4. Installation

    Hung on site, guided by the 3D model and the full-scale physical model. Lundberg is happy to work with the client's preferred carpenter and electrician, or she can bring her own team.

Installation no. 2

The location of the second ceiling

Exact placement within the building to be announced

Aerial view of the Ascent tower in downtown Milwaukee with Lake Michigan beyond.

In progress · Installing early 2027

Ascent MKE

The second ceiling marks Lundberg’s first commercial placement: Ascent, a 25-story luxury high-rise in downtown Milwaukee. When Ascent opened in 2022 it became the tallest timber building in the world. Its mass-timber structure is made from white Austrian spruce, and the installation honors those trees. Lundberg’s design suspends glass of varying shapes and sizes in the form of a tree branch.

The Ascent tower's glass facade with its vertical ASCENT sign.
Downtown Milwaukee from above, with Ascent among the towers and the lakefront beyond.

Bio

Portrait of Autumn Lundberg in a rust-orange coat and black scarf, seated in sunlight in front of a white column.

Autumn Lundberg (b. 1991, Marshfield, Wisconsin) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Milwaukee. Her work spans painting, installation and product design, often showing otherworldly scenes carried by religious symbolism, animals and architecture.

She holds a degree in Industrial Design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and was the NFL's first creative technologist, work that shaped her skills in experience design and 3D modeling. Her practice draws on the meeting point of science and religion, returning to love, grief and contemporary life.

“My biggest fear as a non-artist is that I would not be able to bring the vision that was in my head to life, but Autumn was an expert seeing what I thought only my mind's eye could see. She was the magic I needed.”Jonathon Anderson
The artist in residence studio: a sunlit white wall with a large dark painting, pinned sketches and a cabinet, under a timber ceiling, with planters in the foreground.

Artist in Residence Studio

Private studio
Autumn Lundberg seated on a stool in her private studio, in front of a large canvas wrapped in brown paper, with her dog beside her.
In the studioPrivate studio
Stacks of sketchbooks, notebooks and reference books on a glass table in the private studio, with a blue glass horse on top.
SketchbooksPrivate studio
The private studio: an open warehouse loft with concrete columns, tall plants, a work table and a red sofa in evening light.
The spacePrivate studio
A dog resting on a bed in the private studio, surrounded by plants, a ladder, a brass chandelier and a mirror ball.
Studio companyPrivate studio

Inquire

Commission a ceiling

The studio accepts a small number of commissions each year and travels wherever the work takes it. To receive a quote, reach out to discuss your space. Final pricing is set after the site visit.

  • Hotels and hospitality
  • Residential towers and lobbies
  • Private residences
  • Architects and interior designers
autumnlundbergdesign@gmail.com