Shaw 54th Regiment Memorial
TYLin provided structural engineering services for the restoration of a bronze bas-relief memorial that commemorates one of the first Black regiments of the American Civil War.
The memorial was created by noted American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and completed in 1897.
In 2014, TYLin began work to assess deterioration and structural issues. The monument was not sealed and did not drain properly, allowing water to infiltrate the spaces behind the granite stones. Annual cycles of freezing and thawing pushed many of the stones out of place, causing damage to the stones themselves, the bronze sculpture, and the brick wall upon which the sculpture rests. The steel supporting the crawlspace under the memorial plaza was found to be corroded and inadequate to support the weight of a snowplow or large crowd. TYLin determined necessary repairs for the crawlspace structure and whether the monument needed a lateral support structure.
TYLin's most recent design scope involved dismantling the monument; replacing the underlying brick wall with a new concrete wall; and then reassembling the monument, which involved anchoring stones to the back-up wall and installing a new steel frame to support the sculpture and stones against seismic loads. The memorial was rededicated in 2022.