It was his father's blue-collar know-how that first led Michael Seek to the world of art and two decades of consulting, fabricating and installing dozens of large sculptures around the country.
Seek, an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Technology, was a graduate student at Virginia Tech in the early 2000s when Steve Bickley, professor and sculptor, approached Seek's advisor, Tom Murray, in search of an engineer to help design簫 - and more importantly, provide a professional engineer's stamp for a large steel sculpture by artist
Murray was actually interested in speaking with Seek's father, a practicing engineer.
"One of my Dad's areas of specialization was material handling - designing conveyors, hoppers and chute work for the coal industry," Seek explained.
They applied many of the same principles from his father's work into the design of that first sculpture. "The only trick was that all of the reinforcement had to be hidden inside the sculpture," he said. "The construction of the sculpture is at such a large scale, that it was performed in a fabrication shop used to build metal tanks and hoppers."
Before the project, Seek knew very little about how sculptures were fabricated or installed. "I knew that I liked certain sculptors that defied gravity - like- but I had never considered how some of these large sculptures need to be treated like building projects (with heavy equipment, foundations, etc.).
"To me it was just kind of funny that the sculpture had been getting kicked around at Virginia Tech between academics who built very elaborate finite element analysis models but didn't quite know how to bring the sculpture to reality and it was some very blue-collar practical know-how that provided the solutions," Seek said.
Seek's process often begins with the artist's 2-D drawing or 3D computer model of the sculpture. He then designs the foundation and any reinforcements necessary to ensure the sculpture is stable, either with a structural model by hand or with a 3D finite element model.
"This analysis is similar to a bridge or building structure - I have to estimate the environmental loads; wind, snow, ice, and seismic, that the sculpture may be subjected to," he explained. "From this analysis, I specify thickness of the plates and materials to be used, design the welds and connections."
Many of the sculptures are too large to be transported in a single piece, so Seek works with the artist, fabricator and erector to design connections for the different segments to be installed in the field.
Seek applies the same techniques that he teaches in his civil engineering technology courses to the sculptures.
"Statics is used to understand the equilibrium and balance of the sculptures, Strength of Materials - the understanding of stress and strain used to size the plates, stiffeners, and connections, Structural Analysis is used to evaluate shears and moments in components, and both Soils and Foundations and Design of Concrete Structures are used for the design of the concrete foundations supporting these sculptures," he explained. "Steel Design is used for evaluating the strength of steel components and connections in the sculptures and Environmental Loads is used to evaluate the environmental loads on the sculptures (snow, wind, rain, ice, earthquakes)," he added.
On the other hand, Seek believes that engineering can be artistic as well. "A good engineer has a good eye for beauty and in things that are well engineered with a certain aesthetic," he said. "It could be a bridge, it could be a race car, ship hull or even something as simple as a weldment, when the engineering is done well, it just feels right."
One sculpture, artist Santiago Calatrava's, installed in Chicago's River Point Park in 2020, presented a unique challenge. The 30-foot tall, 3-dimensional spiral made up of aluminum "fingers" was built on a plaza over a train station that was supported by long pre-cast T-beams usually used in construction of parking garages.
"It was a real challenge to visualize in three dimensions because there are no axes of symmetry," Seek said. "Because the geometry is so complex, I had to develop a very detailed 3D finite element model to be able to track the interaction of each of the components."
Seek has worked on a number of other projects including Beverly Pepper'slocated at the Stanford University Arboretum. The four tall slender columns made of Cor-ten steel are placed amongst a grove of oak trees along a pathway. The columns had to be designed in consideration of high seismicity requirements of the San Francisco Bay area.
Philip Stewart's32 Cornersat the Capitol One Center in Tysons Corner, Virginia also has Seek's stamp of approval. The sculpture is a little taller than 30 feet, made of four stainless steel cubes that are stacked atop each other and connected by a sophisticated axle, gimble, and counterweight system. The cubes are designed to spin and rotate in an almost unnatural way with very slight excitations. "It is as much an engineering marvel as a piece of art," he said.
Seek hopes for additional collaboration with. "We have discussed informally collaboration to evaluate refurbishment of some of Kenneth Snelson's sculptures," he said. "I am now embedded deep enough into this world that I expect the next big project is right around the corner."
The public placement of the sculptures is not lost on Seek. "When I went to see the Calatrava Constellation, a wedding party was using it as a backdrop for their wedding photos," he said. "It really does fill me with a sense of pride to have played a part in these sculptures that have become part of the landscape."