This project, located on the north side of Keller Hall at the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus, is a 250-foot-long corridor section of Scholars Walk called the Wall of Discovery. The Wall of Discovery is an artistic tribute to the process that leads to great moments of discovery. Reproductions of original sketches, notes, drawings, letters, and other items from more than 90 illustrious faculty and alumni will be represented. Among the items represented on the wall are Seymour Cray’s calculations for the first Cray Supercomputer, a hand-written score of Dominick Argento’s From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, a sketch of William Pedersen’s Shanghai World Financial Center, notes from breakthrough medical operations, and other items.
The east west canopy framing is approximately 50 feet long and connects to Keller Hall and the Mechanical Engineering Building. This section is completely suspended from Halfen Detan Rods at various locations. Each of the main V shaped members are constructed from four MC12 channels that are tapered then welded together with continuous full penetration welds. These V shaped members were created in tandem, back to back, separated by small pieces of pipe and plates. S6 and MC6 members were spanned across the V frames and cantilevered at the ends.
The west canopy, approximately 180 feet long connecting to Keller Hall, was framed similarly but the main members were offset giving them more of a check mark appearance than a V profile. This canopy is being completely supported at the south side by W8 vertical members and Halfen Detan Rods. The column assemblies at the north side are being completely hung down from the Halfen Detan Rods and the check mark frames. The connection at the bottom to the concrete pier is a floating connection that is there to prevent twisting of the columns only. These column assemblies are built up from (2) HSS-6x4 and several plates. Lighting systems and glass framing is being placed in the space between the vertical HSS-6x4 members. Several holes and access panels needed to be placed in the column assemblies for the lighting systems. On each side of these column assemblies are HSS-5x2 frames that will have lighted glass displays showing off various works. The entire length of this canopy had an additional trellis system placed over these art display frames. This trellis consisted of 38W12 bar grating supported by HSS-2x2 and tapered MC10 channels.
Aside from the canopies, there are a couple other small items of note that can be viewed in the model. One is the handrail at the small concrete stair going into a Keller Hall entrance. These consisted of stainless steel handrail supported by painted steel plates with stainless steel plate fins. The other is the black painted steel cage that encloses the gas meter against the Mechanical Engineering Building. This was constructed of L2”1/2xL2”1/2 and ½” steel plates topped by a S3 beam.
One of the more challenging aspects of this project was making sure everything had access holes and removable panels for running wire to the various light fixtures. Another challenge was creating the odd shaped bent plates that supported some of the Halfen Detan Rods. This was made more challenging due to the bend line being at an odd angle to the direction of rods.
