Chicago shop brings artists’ and architects’ ideas to life

For more than four decades, Chicago-based Vector Custom Fabricating has helped artists, architects, and others bring visions and ideas to life. Pictured is Wolfgang Buttress’ “Lucent,” a glass and metal sculpture with 3,115 hand-blown glass orbs that radiate and emit light from a smaller interior via fiber optic cables. A stainless steel filigree connects all these points together. Images: Vector

Forty-five years fly by so fast, said Steve Mueller.

In 2023, Vector Custom Fabricating celebrated its 45th anniversary. The Chicago-based fabricator was founded by Mueller and fellow sculptors Barry Hehemann and Mike Wilkie. The three wanted to continue making art pieces and to have jobs associated with their college degrees.

“There aren’t that many jobs in that field,” Mueller said. “There’s teaching; you could teach at a university level. But that general course for gainful employment was narrowing at that time.

“You could attempt to be financially successful artists by selling your own work. That's an option as well ... but we didn’t want to depend on that,” he said.

In four decades, Vector has made a name for itself in sculpture and architectural/structural metal work in the Chicago area and beyond, with its objective always being to make its work stand out.

Fabrication Marvels

The founding trio had Illinois roots—all three graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—but they never planned to settle in Chicago.

“That was simply three students graduating from Champaign-Urbana wanting to start a business and asking ourselves, ‘Where's the biggest city nearby?’ I don't remember us ever talking about another city. There wasn't much interest in going out to the East Coast or the West Coast,” Mueller said.

“It's always been a fairly vibrant market for construction,” Mueller said of Chicago. “God knows architecture is given some recognition and emphasis in the Chicagoland area. And there's all these businesses and industries that support the kind of things that we do—it's a robust city.”

Its location grants the fabricator opportunities within the city and outside it. Several of the pieces Vector has worked on can be found in Chicago; some of these works were partnerships between Vector and others. Wolfgang Buttress’ “Lucent,” located in the lobby of the former John Hancock Building, is a glass and metal sculpture featuring 3,115 hand-blown glass orbs that radiate and emit light from a smaller interior via fiber optic cables. A stainless steel filigree connects all these points together. The Vector team called the sculpture a “marvel of fabrication.”

Luftwerk’s “Arboreta” is a glass and aluminum piece that dangles over the breezeway of a new 50-story building in downtown Chicago. The two suspended assemblies include more than 1,000 individual programmable LED lighting nodes. David Weeks Studio’s “The Bots” are two large red sculptures outside the Marriott Marquis Chicago hotel made entirely out of painted aluminum plate. Richard Hunt’s “The Light of Truth” bronze and granite monument, meanwhile, honors journalist/educator/activist Ida B. Wells in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood. Vector sculptures can be found outside of Chicago as well, including Newport News, Va.; Toledo, Ohio; East Lansing, Mich.; and even at the founding trio’s alma mater, the University of Illinois.

“Cloud Buster” is a large, climbable structure at the Chicago Children’s Museum.

Vector’s fabrication expertise goes beyond sculpture work. It also has completed staircase and railing projects found in Chicago ballparks, hotels, businesses, and private residences.

“A good architect, you could argue, is an artist in a more different world,” co-owner Erik Lowe said of working with architects. “And like the artists, oftentimes they have an idea of what their vision is, but not always an idea of how to get there.”

One of Vector’s architectural projects can be found at the Chicago Children’s Museum. “Cloud Buster” is a 37-ft.-tall, climbable structure made from structural steel, wood, wire, rope, acrylic, fiberglass, and artificial turf.

“A very unique fabrication. It is potentially haphazard and kind of fun. But then, of course, it's also to be climbed all over by children,” said Lowe. “It was intensively engineered and very meticulously fabricated ... a pretty fun and interesting thing for the casual onlooker.”

Vector’s 6,000-sq.-ft. shop (about 9,000 sq. ft. including outdoors) includes plenty of the equipment necessary to complete a variety of projects. The company sometimes subcontracts work to others; for example, the shop does minimal polishing.

“We stick to the things that we do best, which are designing and fabricating and the assembly of these things,” Lowe said.

New Ownership

Mueller and the original trio no longer own Vector. Lowe, Seth Godard, and Nathan Overley took over as full-time owners recently; the three were partial owners for about a decade. While Lowe, Godard, and Overley also studied the same thing, the new owners met while working at Vector.

Lowe, for instance, has been with Vector for more than two decades. “It’s hard to really know what other jobs are like anymore,” he said.

The new generation of owners care deeply about the small but creative business, as do the other employees, Lowe said.

“I think that most of the employees that have ever come through here all sort of have that same love and desire,” he added. “It's nice to be working, doing the things that you like to do with other people who also like the same things.”

Some of Vector’s work can be seen publicly in the Chicago area and beyond, such as Cecil Balmond’s “Arpeggio,” found at the Wilson CTA station in Chicago.