Cultural/Worship: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Photo by Timothy Hursley

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a 200,000-sq-ft museum and cultural center, features complex geometric forms inspired by the local Arkansas landscape as well as the suspension bridges of Bhutan.

The museum was built using bridge engineering to create hanging structures, suspending the museum above a creek bed. Two suspended cable-and-wood buildings were secured using specially designed rock anchors to stabilize the large abutments on both roofs. Engineers used analysis models to create the structures and model their behavior during construction, helping to determine construction and erection tolerances.

One judge calls the project an "impressive coordination between architecture and engineering. Innovation at its finest."

Project Team

Owner: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark.

Architect: Safdie Architects, Somerville, Ma.

General Contractor: Linbeck Nabholz Joint Venture, Houston, Texas

Structural/MEP Engineer: Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, New York City

Civil Engineer: CEI Engineering Associates, Bentonville, Ark.

Nadine M. Post, ENR's editor-at-large for buildings, is an award-winning journalist with 45 years of experience covering trends, issues, innovations, controversies and challenging projects. Post has written about many industry giants, including 10 ENR Award of Excellence winners. And she has covered disasters, failures and attacks, including the 1993 bombing and the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. Project stories include the redevelopment of the World Trade Center; the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa; Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall; and Seattle's Bullitt Center and Rainier Square Tower. In 1985, Post wrote McGraw-Hill's book Restoring the Statue of Liberty (1986) for the restoration’s architects—Richard S. Hayden and Thierry W. Despont.

Post a comment to this article

60% of workers are exposed to heights greater than 5 ft daily, and workers' compensation from injury is more than $7B - it's time for construction leaders to take measures to reduce risk and create a safer work environment. We'll explore how technology can improve construction site safety and help prevent accidents before they happen.