THE ARTISTS JOURNEY AT EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT,
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

The Experience Music Project (EMP) is an interactive contemporary music museum concieved by former Microsoft executive Paul Allen and co-founder Jody Allen Patton. Renowned architect Frank O. Gehry was engaged to design a very unusual series of enclosures to house the various galleries and attractions in the complex located under the Seattle Words Fair Space Needle, and ground was broken on the project in June of 1997. One of these unique and fluid shaped enclosures was to house The Artists Journey, a ride-based music attraction covering 7,500 square feet, and enclosing a section of the Seattle Monorail track. Digital Domain was contracted by EMP to develop The Artists Journey attraction and in August of 1998 Digital Domain came to EEI for engineering services that would bring the concept to a buildable reality.

The Artists Journey Show incorporates several acts in separate steel structures inside the Gehry concieved shell and incorporates approximately 30 tons of moving and flying sets and partitions, an occulus opening with show elements entering and exiting via winches, a motion-simulation theater with digital animations and light and sound shows. Due to the highly irregular shape of the building and the need to isolate vibrations caused by moving loads in the various show segments, EEI chose to design all the steel show structures as free standing entities inside the shell. These new structures had to be totally self supporting of vertical and lateral loads, would require individual FEA analysis under the forces imposed by the very complex show rigging as well as seismic criteria, and would require many unique steel framing details. In part because the projection booth hangs from the same platform that supports the show rigging, the computer analysis of the Act II show structure became one of the most difficult and complex ever performed by EEI.

In the fall of 1998 EEI completed the schematic design phase for Digital Domain and worked right through 1999 with The Cunningham Group architects, Lester Creative and Fischer Technical show and rigging, and Skilling Ward Magnussen Barkshire for facility interface, to complete the engineering drawing package for the entire Artists Journey project. Our deliverable contract documents included Basis of Design w/strength of materials, FEA reports for each structure with calculations confirming our designs, Engineering Drawings including typical and unique steel framing details for every member in each structure. Our Construction Administration phase included constant PR and SI communication throughout construction, numerous site inspections, and complete review of all steel shop drawings.

We are proud that Entertainment Engineering, Inc.`s contribution to the Artists Journey was essential to the successful opening and continuing operational integrity of this unique show and indeed to the Experience Music Project.