Point of View

Artist Matthew Passmore of MoreLab studio designed and created this unique interactive sculpture that was temporarily located in front of Pier 27 in San Francisco. A second identical tower was constructed in Haifa, Israel. Each tower offered a live video feed of the other side of the earth as visitors peer through a periscope housed inside each tower. The tapered helical shape resembled a lighthouse and was constructed of nine curved steel pipe columns interconnected with angled steel “blades” and strategically placed structural pipe braces.

We created a 3-dimensional model of the 25-foot-tall steel frame to analyze the structure for wind and seismic loads as well as gravity loads and live loads imparted by the users. The columns were braced at mid-height by a steel tube diaphragm element, which also served as a mounting point for the periscope.