Phoebe Health Donor Recognition Sculpture

A three-story suspended donor recognition sculpture created for the Phoebe Health Trauma & Critical Care Tower in Albany, Georgia. This project transformed an artistic concept into a manufacturable architectural installation through advanced computational geometry, CNC tube development, and fabrication engineering.

Client: Phoebe Health
Location: Albany, Georgia
Project: Donor Recognition Sculpture
Design: Heurista
Fabrication: Urban FX (Employer)
Role: Technical Design Engineer

Project Overview

The Phoebe Health Donor Recognition Sculpture is a three-story suspended architectural installation located within the atrium of the Trauma & Critical Care Tower in Albany, Georgia. Designed by Heurista, the sculpture serves as the hospital's donor recognition centerpiece, transforming hundreds of suspended acrylic panels into a continuous flowing architectural feature visible throughout the multi-story atrium.

This project required the successful translation of an artistic concept into a manufacturable structural assembly while preserving the visual intent of the original design.

My Contribution

As Technical Design Engineer at Urban FX, I was responsible for developing the manufacturing geometry required to transform the artist's concept into a buildable architectural structure.

My responsibilities included reconstructing manufacturable tube centerlines from complex digital geometry, developing CNC tube-bending data, planning fabrication segmentation, maintaining tangent continuity across field splices, and designing custom CAD-derived inspection fixtures used to validate fabricated components before assembly and installation.

My role focused on bridging the gap between artistic design intent and manufacturable reality through computational geometry, CNC tube development, and fabrication engineering.

Technical Highlights

Computational Geometry
Developed manufacturable tube centerlines from complex freeform digital geometry, preserving the artist's visual intent while creating production-ready manufacturing geometry.
CNC Tube Development
Created CNC tube-bending data and manufacturing strategies for a 48-foot freeform structural assembly using a Nissin rotary draw tube bender.
Manufacturing Validation
Designed custom CAD-derived inspection fixtures to verify fabricated tube geometry and maintain dimensional accuracy throughout production.
Fabrication Strategy
Developed segmentation and splice strategies that preserved tangent continuity while supporting transportation, welding, and field assembly.
Process Development
Contributed to the mathematical workflow that translated complex mesh geometry into manufacturable bend data for large-scale architectural fabrication.
Digital-to-Physical Workflow
Bridged artistic design intent and physical fabrication through computational geometry, CAD development, CNC manufacturing, and fabrication support.
Precision Manufacturing
Maintained continuous freeform geometry across multiple fabricated sections while supporting production tolerances and installation requirements.

Process Galleries

Curved tube clamped into the CAD-derived inspection fixture on the shop floor

Fabrication

From digital geometry to physical reality. Explore the computational workflow, CNC tube development, inspection fixtures, and manufacturing techniques used to transform a complex artistic concept into a buildable architectural structure.

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