David Slutes was working through some complex disco math on a recent afternoon in the back lot of the Sunstate Equipment Co. on West Grant Road.
"You are in a club and you are 6 feet tall and the roof is maybe 15 feet high," Slutes explained to metal artist Moises Orozco amid the growling hum of idling truck engines. "If that's the case, the disco ball has to be twice as high as you are."
Slutes and Orozco were nailing down the logistics for the hotel's upcoming Studio 54-themed New Year's Eve bash, specifically how and where the disco ball will be hung.
The event is a tribute to the glitz and glamour of one of New York City's most elite and world-renowned nightclubs.
It will take place throughout the hotel lobby, the club and in the back courtyard, and will feature live music as well as DJs on two stages. There will be, of course, a VIP area, tentatively dubbed "The Capote Room," along with heaps of glitter.
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Slutes, the hotel's entertainment director, has even sought out Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger look-alikes to mingle with guests.
But the biggest feature, which brought Slutes and Orozco to a heavy-equipment company in the first place, is the disco ball, which Slutes hopes will be the largest ever recorded in North America.
Orozco has been working on the ball for the last month at the Sculpture Resource Center on North Stone Avenue, where he serves as part of an artist collective.
When completed, it will be 200 pounds of disco goodness, an orb - 12 feet in diameter - made of metal piping, cardboard, chicken wire and reflective Mylar, in lieu of glass.
It will hang behind the plaza stage during the party, suspended from the platform of a 60-foot, blue Genie boom lift.
"The Guinness Book of World Records says the biggest disco ball in North America was made in Utah of all places," Slutes said. "That was 10 feet. We are going 2 feet bigger."
The biggest disco ball in the world, at just over 32 feet in diameter, was showcased earlier this year in Moscow, Russia.
The ball that drops in Times Square every year, though not technically a disco ball, is about 12 feet.
Slutes said the idea for a giant disco ball came long before the Studio 54 concept, but "it is a great theme for a party."
He chose Orozco to create the piece after the two hit it off during last year's Aztec Apocalypse New Year's Eve party.
Orozco played the role of the sacrificed virgin.
"The world was spared for another year because of me," he said.
Orozco has sculpted all sorts of things out of metal and has worked with high hanging objects before, having participated in creating different aspects of the All Souls Procession finale.
He's never tried his hand at a disco ball, but "almost everything I've ever built, I had never built before," he said. "If I can see it in my mind, I can build it."
Slutes said the ball is reason enough to come to Congress for New Year's Eve this year.
He hopes to make it a feature piece somewhere in the hotel, or maybe on the roof, when the New Year's festivities are over.
"It is going to be the greatest backdrop ever," Slutes said. "We have to do something with it."
On StarNet: See more photos of Moises Orozco and this project at azstarnet.com/gallery
If you go
• What: Studio 54 New Year's Eve Bash.
• When: 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Monday.
• Where: Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St.
• Tickets: $25 regular admission includes party favors, live music and a champagne toast. $125 VIP admission includes private entertainment, a hosted bar, passed and stationed hors d'oeuvres and a free photo booth.
• Info: hotelcongress.com
