Cornerstone’s Blue Tree comes down

A small melancholy group gathered under rainy skies on Friday as Cornerstone’s iconic Blue Tree was cut down. Cornerstone’s Teresa Raffo addressed the onlookers saying that the gardens are a laboratory of sorts and that the Blue Tree, created by Canadian landscape designer and architect Claude Cormier in 2007, was another in a series of experiments that have captivated visitors over the years. With its thousands of blue balls, Cormier’s intent was to have the tree blend in with the surrounding sky, becoming invisible. The experiment went grossly awry as the Blue Tree ended up being anything but invisible, instead becoming almost a beacon that welcomed visitors not just to Cornerstone but to the Valley as well. This tree, wrapped with 25,000 sky-blue Christmas balls, is Cormier’s second endeavor, replacing the original installed in 2004. According to Raffo, any installation using a dead or diseased tree can only last a few years. The Blue Tree will not be replaced.