THE STRUCTURES LAB
COURTNEY CLARK

“What I found interesting in doing the research and the reading in order to design the models was how Professor Menn arrived at these forms. Everything had a reason for being the size it was, where it was, the way it curved. I found that really incredible—just how much forethought went into the creation of these structures.”

Courtney Clark (’03) is pursuing her B.S.E. in Structural Engineering. Raised outside Boston, she chose Princeton because she liked the integrated approach offered by the Architecture and Engineering program, which allows her to combine her love of architecture with her academic strengths in math and science. In 2002, she was a member of Princeton’s Concrete Canoe team. Concrete Canoe is a competition sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers in which teams of students from around the country create canoes using a special kind of concrete leavened with lightweight glass bubbles. Courtney worked on the canoe and created the website for the project.

Courtney and Joe Vocaturo designed and fabricated models of Christian Menn’s Felsenau and Sunniberg Bridges. First, she created three-dimensional computer models of the structures using the program Pro/Engineer. With the help of Glenn Northey from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, she then programmed the CNC machine to use codes generated by Pro/Engineer to mill the individual bridge pieces. For the Felsenau Bridge, she made prototypes of the components in foam, and then the final pieces were cut from plastic. Unfortunately, the plastic pieces warped a bit in the process, but Courtney was able to solve the problem by heating them in an oven and reshaping them. The model was assembled and mounted on an aluminum honeycomb base, which was covered by a landscape of fiberglass-covered foam with plywood sides. The basic construction for the Sunniberg model is similar to the Felsenau. She used Pro/Engineer and the CNC machine to make the towers; however, the material used was aluminum not plastic. The deck is made of Plexiglas®, cut on the laser cutter with cables of nylon to attach the deck to the towers.

GLOSSARY I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I RELATED LINKS
© 2003 The Princeton University Art Museum