Sisters clock highlights new City Hall

Clocks are more than just a way of telling time. They communicate a sense of substance, comfort and regularity to life. They are the perfect illustration of community where a myriad of small parts function for the greater good.

The new Sisters City Hall is adorned with just such a work of art - allowing our city to join with cities like Copenhagen, Brisbane and Toronto around the world and smaller towns like Baker City and Salem in Oregon - which feature clocks as the architectural focal point of their city halls.

Sisters City Manager Eileen Stein said that the first time the city thought about incorporating a clock into the new city hall was when architects Steele and Associates included a clock in their rendering of their proposed facade.

"As soon as I saw the clock concept in the exterior sketch that the architect presented to us, I immediately thought of 'oh well we know who will do that clock,'" she said.

"It would make sense that Beacham's (Clock Co.) would do that clock because they are a premiere clock manufacturer right here in Sisters. I am just really pleased that we were able to work a Beacham clock into the building design."

Master clockmaker Ed Beacham seems just as delighted to have his clock as the focal point of Sisters City Hall.

Beacham told The Nugget that the clock's design was a collaborative effort between himself and the building's architects. His first concept was to have a round window, but after studying the building's architectural elements, Beacham adapted the design of his clock to compliment the qualities of the building's design.

One of Beacham's biggest concerns in designing the clock was to keep costs down. To help, he used a glazier in Bend to cut the dial and had the Plexiglas, which is the white background on the dial, cut when he went to Seattle on a business trip to avoid freight costs. Beacham outsourced the fabrication of the clock's hands, although he balanced them himself and purchased an electronic unit for the works.

Beacham remarked that this project was not as much of a creative endeavor for him as many.

Laughing he said, "Electric clocks are easy. A full, mechanical tower clock, that's a real astronomical undertaking."

Beacham explained that what he did was design the six-foot dial and the hands and find a movement that could work with both of those.

The clock's dial and hand pattern are similar to those on the clock at the city hall in Baker City, according to Beacham.

Beacham designed the clock by using a Computer Aided Drafting/Computer Aided Machining program called CAD/CAM.

"What we can do is we can send a file, just an e-mail file, and then they cut the parts out; they plot a tool path off my drawing," he said.

After Beacham received all of the parts, it took him only about two days to put the clock together.

"When I went to hang it in there, the contractor said he had a big scissor lift, and we were able to slip it up and put in four bolts, and it was ready to go," Beacham said.

The whole process took only a couple of hours.

Beacham is currently working on a two-dial clock that will be atop a 35-plus-foot tower for the city of Vancouver, Washington. Beacham has also done the four-dial tower clock at Eagle Crest Resort that has an electronic impulse which triggers a fountain when the clock chimes, the clock at the Big Meadow Golf Course at Black Butte Ranch and a clock at a car wash in Bend.

"It's fun; I like big, public clocks!" he said. "It's fun to see all of the different people's imaginations and everything."

Beacham said that he has been making clocks for over 40 years, admitting that he is for the most part self-taught. Beacham said that he was not interested in clocks whatsoever until his senior year of high school when his wood shop teacher gave him the assignment to build a grandfather clock. Beacham reflected that he had been making boats and his teacher wanted him to develop more refined cabinet making skills.

"That was 685 of them ago; actually the one at City Hall is my 685th clock," he revealed.

When Beacham moved to Sisters in 1978, he was finishing clock number 39. Virtually his entire clock making career has developed in Sisters - and they've gone worldwide.

"We have clocks in France, Germany, Switzerland, England, Japan and Hong Kong," he said.