Antony Gormley Rooftop Sculptures

Rooftop sculptures that transform the Dallas Arts District skyline

The rooftop installation places sculptures on buildings in and around the Arts District in downtown Dallas, Texas, creating a city-scale public artwork of figures perched lightly above the Nasher Sculpture Center garden and along multiple downtown sightlines with minimal visual impact on existing structures. Formed from stainless-steel trajectories that describe the human body as an “energy system of reflected light,” the sculptures are are part of the first major U.S. museum survey of British sculptor Antony Gormley’s work and continues his long-term investigation into the relationship between the body, architecture and urban space.

Thornton Tomasetti’s Dallas office served as structural engineer for the sculpture bases and building interfaces. Over roughly a year, we worked with Gormley Studio, the Nasher Sculpture Center and London-based engineer Price & Myers, who designed the steel superstructures, to integrate the artwork with a range of existing rooftops across downtown Dallas, coordinating structural analysis, attachment design and rooftop integration strategies.

Highlights

• Our engineers visited approximately a dozen candidate buildings with a Nasher representative to identify structurally and visually suitable locations. 
• For each roof, we produced a brief structural report documenting existing conditions, feasible sculpture positions and any required strengthening. 
• We developed base and attachment concepts for each building, coordinating with existing roof framing, waterproofing and maintenance access. 
• We reviewed the superstructure reactions and connection requirements from Price & Myers and verified compatibility with U.S. codes and building behavior. 
• We prepared final drawings for the selected buildings, detailing bases, local reinforcing and installation interfaces, as part of a closely coordinated, transatlantic effort that aligned artist, museum and engineering teams and reinforced Thornton Tomasetti’s ongoing investment in cultural and special-structures work.