Photos by Sam Barnes

The Crest at Galvez Plaza, a 65,000-lb, 35-ft-tall cantilevered steel sculpture, is part of a $900,000 revitalization project for the city of Baton Rouge. A steel mass of roughly 16,700 sq ft comprises the structure and supports lighting and sound equipment. Covered in stainless-steel cladding, each hollow section is triangular, and no side has the same measurement.

Arrighi Construction led work on the project, which went through multiple design iterations. The design consisted of a series of 14-ft-long segments paired with complex geometry on a simple skeletal frame, with longitudinal plates providing frame support. In June 2012, Kansas City Steel began fabricating the sections and delivering them to the site in the order of their planned erection.

The Crest's base section contains a large steel-truss anchor bolted to Galvez Plaza. The truss distributes the loads exerted by the structure. Connections to the base were critical, so the contractor X-rayed each full-penetration weld.

The original bid for project came in at more than $1.5 million, but Arrighi worked with the fabricator and designer to reduce the cost of the structure with value engineering, reducing the final contract to $899,995.

One judge commented, "There wasn't a single straight piece of metal anywhere in it, requiring very unusual engineering and execution and back-and-forth with the engineers and the fabricators."

Submitted by Arrighi Construction LLC

Owner City of Baton Rouge

Architect Trahan Architects

General Contractor Arrighi Construction LLC

Structural Engineer KH Engineering Group