Odyssey by Sanford Biggers Studio is a pair of fully suspended sculptures located in the new mass-timber terminal at Portland International Airport. The artwork consists of DiBond aluminum graphic panels, designed by the artist team, supported by lightweight aluminum tube frames suspended by stainless steel aircraft cables. Positioned above airline gates, the sculptures greet deplaning passengers. The cables were made as thin as possible to create the illusion that the pieces are floating.
The placement of sculpture cable supports was constrained by the timber ceiling trellis and full-height glazing walls of the building. The fabrication team at JunoWorks and CRAFT relied heavily on the 3D Building Information Model provided by the airport building team to locate the cables and ensure that no clashes with architectural finishes would occur during installation.
Because the airport is in a seismically active region, the sculptures required design considerations for seismic loads. Although the entire roof structure is seismically isolated on bearings, the full-height glazing walls adjacent to the sculptures posed a potential hazard, as they could become projectiles if impacted by the artwork. To prevent impact, diagonal cables were used to brace the sculptures and prevent lateral sway toward the glazing walls. However, because the glazing walls prohibited bracing in the opposite direction, the sculptures are designed to sway freely in all other directions during a seismic event. This sway behavior was carefully coordinated with architectural lights, walls, signage, and the structural roof columns to ensure that no interactions would occur under extreme seismic conditions.
The suspended sculptures were evaluated using finite element analysis (FEA) with linear element models, incorporating incremental load applications and nonlinear large-deformation analysis to simulate the effects of a suspended mass balanced on tension-only cable elements. Separate models were used to assess both seismically braced and sway-permitted conditions. Additionally, custom brackets for attaching the cables to the aluminum tube frames and the mass timber building system were developed and analyzed using solid element analysis.
Project Team
Artist: Sanford Biggers Studio, Fabricator: JunoWorks
