Rocket is a three-dimensional sculpture celebrating the history of Heights Park and its former playground pieces installed in the 1960s and removed in 2008 due to safety concerns. The art acts as the gateway into Heights Park, which features a new recreation center. Rocket was created by artist Jeff Laramore, who was selected through a juried process. The aluminum, fully welded art piece evokes the original “rocket ship” piece of playground equipment once located at the park. The artwork features a large, suspended ornamental medallion with an interior sphere and pinnacle spire.

The complex geometric shape required extreme accuracy to achieve tight fabrication tolerances. Structural splices provided manageable section sizes for ease of shipping and are strategically located to reduce their visibility.

Poor soil conditions on the site required CE Solutions to design and detail a special drilled pier foundation with a concrete cap and tie-beam constructed over trapezoidal cardboard carton forms. A concrete tie-beam was used to tie opposing arch pier caps together.

CE Solutions used three-dimensional, finite-element analysis to model the structure and size the structural members for maximum efficiency.

Constructed | 2013
Size | 28' x 17'