Scope Overview

The Art Climb includes a staircase from the sidewalk near the intersection of Eden Park Drive and Gilbert Avenue and leading up to the front museum entrance. Multiple flights of steps and landings will span the hill at the northern corner of the visitor’s parking lot, around 450 feet from the street to the parking lot. There are a total of 164 step with 19 landings which elevate folks a little over 9 stories. Much effort has been taken to retain as many trees as possible in the construction of the Art Climb.

Project Challenges and Mitigation Efforts

The main challenge on this project was the terrain and protection of existing trees around the steep hillside. To keep the steps from moving and shifting down the hillside, Prus teamed up with GSI to design-build the slope stability and foundation system using a combination of permanent soil nails and micro-piles. We then cast structural grade beams and cast in footings and placed walls that connected to the soil nails and micro-piles elements. The other challenge was the accuracy required for the precast which necessitated that we be within an 1/8” in length, depth, and elevation. This challenge was compounded by the nature of the steep treads having irregular and random length and 3 differencing widths.