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137:(January 30, 1945 – December 9, 2008) was an American artist, inventor, and businessman. In 1982, he designed and created one of the first solar-powered surge irrigation systems for row crops and founded P&R Surge Systems with his wife Patricia Mills. As an artist, he designed jewelry, furniture, and numerous sculptures both large and small. He is perhaps most widely recognized for the artistic steel house that sits on the edge of the jagged caprock escarpment that overlooks
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219:” was developed by Stringham and Keller (1979). Learning of this new technology, Robert Bruno developed a surge valve system and the couple formed an irrigation company called P&R Surge Systems (the name being derived from their first initials). The company was successful and provided additional financial support for his art.
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In 1991, Mark Lawson asked him to design another house to occupy a nearby vacant lot in Ransom Canyon. This house would be constructed of stone and tile instead of steel. Bruno, Rick Denser (general contractor), Manfred Kaiter (master stone mason), and Lawson started work on the rock house in 1991.
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Bruno began construction of the Steel House in 1973. This 2,200 sq ft (200 m) three-level house was constructed of numerous pieces of scrap steel carefully welded together forming an enormous curving form. It is estimated to weigh 110 tons and rests on four hollow legs anchored to
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During the 1970s, Bruno taught at Texas Tech while his wife worked at the High Plains
Underground Water District, an organization charged with protecting and conserving precious groundwater resources across a large portion of the
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While teaching at Texas Tech
University, Bruno completed a large steel sculpture that later became the inspiration for the Steel House at Ransom Canyon. It is in front of the Architecture Building.
161:. He was the son of Robert R. Bruno Sr. and Delores Puig and he had two sisters, Kathleen and Diane. He spent his early years shuttling between divorced parents in the United States and Mexico.
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176:. At Dominican College, he began working with steel and completed numerous steel sculptures, some of which were installed in the backyard of his grandparents’ home in
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Stringham, G.E. and Keller, J. 1979. Surge flow for automatic irrigation. Proc. ASCE Irrigation and
Drainage Specialty Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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Dominican College he met Patricia Mills, a Catholic student on track to become a nun. They were married and soon moved to
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William Kerns, Robert Bruno's steel house lives on in Ransom Canyon, Lubbock
Avalanche-Journal, October 8, 2013.
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Dedication of the Robert Bruno
Sculpture and Plaza at Texas Tech University, April 20, 2015
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U.S. Geological Survey
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235:. The steel house has many large smoothly curving windows, some composed of
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Robert R. Bruno (obituary), Lubbock
Avalanche-Journal, December 12, 2008.
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380:"A look inside sculptor Robert Bruno's legendary 'Steel House' in Texas"
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Robert Bruno's Steel House overlooking the rim at Ransom Canyon
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Dedication of the Bruno
Sculpture and Plaza, April 20, 2015.
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Solange - Cranes in the Sky featuring the Steel House
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191:. They had one child, a daughter named Christina.
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16:American artist, inventor, and businessman
472:Bruno Sculpture Dedication, 20 April 2015
239:while others provide a panoramic view of
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412:Twill: A House Made of Steel and Flesh
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405:Robert Bruno's Steel House on Vimeo
508:Dominican College of Racine alumni
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538:20th-century American inventors
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518:Texas Tech University faculty
112:Founder of P&R Irrigation
104:Sculptor, artist, businessman
207:Prior to the development of
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503:People from Lubbock, Texas
341:Mark Lamster. Unfinished.
80:Bruno Sculpture Plaza, TTU
528:Sculptors from California
419:Robert Bruno: Steel House
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448:Robert Bruno Steel House
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388:San Francisco Chronicle
343:The Dallas Morning News
209:center pivot irrigation
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189:Texas Tech University
533:Sculptors from Texas
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135:Robert R. Bruno Jr.
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64:(2008-12-09)
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153:Biography
77:Monuments
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88:American
435:YouTube
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117:Partner
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