The Science Pyramid is a 5,500 square foot interactive botanical research exhibit that is scheduled to open in 2014. It is part of the Denver Botanic Gardens, located in Denver, Colorado. The primary support steel for the Science pyramid consists of sloping & skewed HSS16x0.500 and HSS8.625x0.500 round tubular members that form a pyramid-like shape. Each primary member is sloped and skewed at a different angle, making no two connections alike. The primary steel supports thirteen individual panels of secondary framing that consist of HSS6x6 square tubular members and light gage steel. Two of the panels also include hexagonally-shaped removable grating, designed to resemble honeycombs. The company's scope for this structure was to provide fabrication drawings of the primary and secondary structural steel to the structural steel fabricator, requiring modelling, connecting, and detailing this uniquely-framed structure.
The major challenge of this project was, how to connect the various architecturally exposed round and rectangular tubular members to each other in a manner that was architecturally pleasing, economical to the fabricator, and erectable in order to meet an aggressive construction schedule. The original connection detail required tube-to-tube branch connections using partial penetration field welds.
