2024 Archive : Winged Melody

Project Details

Fabric 1

Architec 400
Producer/Manufacturer: Polyfab USA
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Engineer Name 1
Dave Gibbens

Engineer Company 1
SCHNEIDER STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS

Design Name
Colin Bruce

Design Company
BRUCE ENTERPRISES LLC

Architect Name
Colin Bruce

Architect Company
BRUCE ENTERPRISES LLC

Fabrication Company
BRUCE ENTERPRISES LLC

Project Manager Name
Tim Gallagher

Project Manager Company
BRUCE ENTERPRISES LLC

Installation Company
BRUCE ENTERPRISES LLC

Please describe the project specifications

Our client hired us to design and build “Winged Melody” Monumental Tensile Sculpture, approximately 50 feet deep by 120 feet wide, for the bandstand in the first of multiple large parks planned for The Aurora Highlands master planned development in Aurora, Colorado, to be a stunning centerpiece for the community and a social concentrator for a variety of events, including outdoor concerts. The owner was emphatic that this piece’s aesthetic also had to integrate with all of our Tensile Sculpture products already installed in multiple smaller pocket parks and other artwork woven as an artistic thread throughout the development.

As with all our projects, we approached this project as an exciting opportunity to design not only a tensile structure but a “Tensile Sculpture”, a term we coined to better describe the melding of art and engineering in our work. We were resolute that the finished project be an elegant sculptural statement in the landscape, with a freedom and clarity that belies the complex engineering and fabrication behind it. This captivating piece not only enhances the local landscape but also serves as a unique gathering place for the community, instilling pride of place in its members. And our integrated lighting design creates a beacon for the community at night.

One of the biggest challenges of this project was to design, engineer, and construct a structure of this magnitude and complexity in a three-month timeframe, to be completed in time for our client’s desired date for an opening celebration for the park. Another key challenge was to accommodate the significant snow loads and high winds common in the plains region east of the Rockies so the fabric membrane could remain deployed for the community for as much of the year as possible. Our client is delighted with how the finished project turned out and chose to name the entire park “Winged Melody Park” after the name we gave our Tensile Sculpture, which is a rewarding indication of their appreciation for what we accomplished for them.

Our design of “Winged Melody” is ambitious in conception and rigorous in execution. Our innovations in design, engineering, and fabrication are unique and necessary to the impact of this centerpiece for The Aurora Highlands community. The geometry behind the deceptively simple form of the sculptural statement is truly complex, as were the logistics to pre-fabricate, transport, and assemble the structure at the site. The project’s distinctive design cuts a striking silhouette against the Aurora skyline, drawing the eye and inviting both residents and visitors to explore the park and collect beneath the outstretched wings of the fabric membrane.

The inverted bow-shaped primary structural steel supports are rotated off parallel, are leaning outward away from one another, and are rocked upward to create a higher side of the structure facing the large lawn where the audience gathers for performances on the stage. For logistical feasibility, we designed and fabricated each of these supports in three sections connected by our proprietary high-capacity internal splice connectors that provide a smooth transition and imperceptible seam between sections, functionally easing field assembly and resulting in the crisp, clean lines of the supports.

Equally important as the form and geometry of the primary supports is how they are connected to their foundations at the stage and how these foundations also become sculptural elements relating to the geometry of the overall bandstand design. We expressed the foundations above ground with asymmetrically pyramidal formed concrete monoliths that elevate the primary supports above head height to both loft the fabric membrane and discourage climbing on the structure. The connection between the supports and monoliths required out-of-the-box thinking and close collaboration between design and fabrication teams to handle the complex set of forces, including shear, moment, and torsion, while also ensuring perfect alignment between the pre-fabricated steel supports and field-formed bases.

Our unique stiffened baseplate design with hemispherical saddles, which we dubbed “cradle fins”, creates an extremely rigid structural connection while aesthetically separating the supports above the monoliths to accentuate their form and give the perception that the sizable structure is floating above its solid base. The pièce de résistance of this detail is how we routed the tensioning cables for the fabric membrane and the electrical wires for the light fixtures through custom conduits carefully machined within the thickness of the steel plate “cradle fins”, so as to avoid any visible extraneous conduits that would obfuscate our concept of the airspace that floats the structure above its base.

Our design team was passionately focused on achieving minimal and discreet connection details throughout the project, including custom designed and machined connection hardware, that allow the immense single fabric membrane to soar effortlessly between the unique structural supports. We also wanted to give this monumental sculpture dramatic illumination in the evening hours, highlighting the landmark from a distance and providing ambient illumination for the bandstand. To accomplish this, we designed and fabricated custom mounting accommodations for high-output LED light fixtures to be completely recessed into the primary supports, with no protrusions from their surfaces, at strategic locations and angles to optimally illuminate the fabric membrane. There are eighteen fixtures total, nine per primary support, which thoroughly illuminate the membrane while preserving the crisp, clean lines of the supports.

To facilitate installation and removal of the fabric membrane, we devised an ingenious system whereby the fabric membrane can be hoisted and lowered from stage level by means of high-capacity winches hidden in voids cast into the concrete monolith bases, with cables routing to them from the points of the fabric membrane through internal tubes within the primary supports that precisely navigate the aforementioned recessed light fixtures and internal splice connectors. And we trimmed out the voids in the monoliths with custom metal access hatch panels powder coated to match the monoliths and that flush out with the surface of the monoliths, preserving the purity of their forms.

“Winged Melody” Monumental Tensile Sculpture is a true testament to the power of innovative design and engineering and pride in craftsmanship, and we believe the finished project showcases our creativity, problem-solving skills, and attention to detail.

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