Shannon & Wilson Rocks on LA's "Levitated Mass" Art Project

Los Angeles, CA, July 05, 2012 --(PR.com)-- There has been quite the buzz about Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass sculpture now open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The exhibit’s centerpiece, a 340-ton, two-story-tall granitic rock, is supported above a subterranean ramp at the La Brea Tar Pits. The rock’s tortuous transport route (105 miles) through LA from a Riverside quarry made national news some months ago, and there have been heated debates about both the artistic meaning and financing of the sculpture. For Shannon & Wilson, “Levitated Mass” was a four-year project with interesting and ever-present geotechnical challenges. The geotechnical engineering and environmental consulting firm worked closely with the structural engineering firm (Buro Happold), the contractor and LACMA on rock mass characterization, recommendations for transport and setting of the rock, and geotechnical design and construction services for the ramp.

Levitated Mass was the last phase of LACMA’s 10-year Transformation project, which included new buildings and a subterranean parking structure. The ribbon cutting included remarks by the mayor of Los Angeles. Shannon & Wilson is proud to have been of service to LACMA for its transformation and, in some small way, to have expressed themselves artistically.

Shannon & Wilson is an employee-owned consulting firm recognized by the industry and their clients to be among the geotechnical and environmental consulting leaders in the Los Angeles community and nationwide. In-house capabilities include environmental science, engineering, geohydrology, geotechnical engineering and instrumentation, geology and geophysics, rock mechanics and underground engineering and earthquake engineering. Shannon & Wilson was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.