First completed in the late 1930s, North Carolina State University’s Memorial Belltower had always lacked a key component—the bells. Instead, four loudspeakers had for decades broadcast bell sounds across the campus. In the decades since, the iconic campus landmark had suffered from water intrusion and other issues.

Few projects better epitomize architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s admonition that form and function “should be one, joined in a spiritual union” than the Susan and John Sykes Ars Sonora, one of the world’s largest and most unique musical bell sculptures, currently in the early stages of construction at the University of Tampa.