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New Art Installation at Armstrong Hall

The College of New Jersey has a new testament to its achievement and excellence in engineering. Thanks to the efforts of the students and the generosity of Capital Steel Service, LLC. and Waters and Bugbee, Inc, the School of engineering is now proudly displaying an American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) steel sculpture in front of Armstrong Hall. The sculpture serves not only as public art for the campus, but also as a learning tool for engineering students providing many examples of fundamental steel structure members and connections. Equally important, the sculpture now serves as an impressive landmark for Armstrong Hall. The achievement has even caught the eye of Modern Steel Construction Magazine, who published an article about the sculpture in September.

The sculpture is the product of the College’s civil engineering student’s hard work and was spear headed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter. Both students and faculty of the chapter came up with the idea after visiting other colleges with similar sculptures. Once they decided to go ahead with their idea, they quickly found donors and were busy working to achieve campus approval.
The students were deeply involved in the initiative from beginning to end, from performing soil testing at the site to the working with Waters and Bugbee to complete the final assembly. Dr. Vedrana Kristic’s class even went out to see the pouring of the foundation. Additionally, the students made several presentations around campus to various constituent groups, including the Board of Trustees, and solicited feedback from the community.
Future plans of Dr. Nabil Al-Omaishi, associate professor of civil engineering, involve incorporating the piece in his structures class. The students and faculty take great pride in the sculpture’s presence and the recognition it has received. ASCE’s students are grateful to the donors as well as the School of Engineering and the professors for their support in making this happen.