At that time, B.C. Binning was a very prominent artist and a personal friend of TRIUMF’s first director, John D. Warren. Warren’s goal, as noted in the lab’s archives, were that the presentation of science to a visual community had to look exciting and make a statement. Warren wanted to reflect the machine’s industrial design with specific color co-ordination; Binning was presented with the idea and provided his recommendation.
With this history in mind, TRIUMF’s main cyclotron holds as one of the largest artist endeavours of BC Binning’s career, carefully preserved in a concrete and steel vault located 40-feet under ground.