Event Tech, a leader in full production services headquartered in Baltimore, MD, provided a self-climbing truss goal post using their modular Folding Ballast Truss system as part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission’s effort to evaluate artwork submissions for the planned memorial.  Over the course of several weeks, five different artwork submissions were suspended and reviewed by the Commission, architect Frank Gehry, and others.

The artwork panels were state of the art metallic ‘tapestries’ stretched on steel frames.  Sizes ranged up to 10’x15’ and weighed as much as 1500lbs.  Multiple panels were rigged side-by-side from a 35’x42’ self-climbing goal post ballasted with 49,000lbs of water.  The location of the project, a plaza in front of the Department of Education in Washington, DC, required the structure footprint to fit among existing trees and planters.  The artwork had to be positioned spatially in the same space that the eventual memorial will sit.

Event Tech’s FBT ballast system provided the perfect solution, permitting the structure to go around existing obstructions and allowing the artwork to be suspended for an extended period of time.  Having the ballast system as an integral part of the structure itself allowed a certified wind rating of 90mph and did not require any ground penetrations or external anchors.