When Hoffman built Seattle's Experience Music Project in 2000, it was one of the most complex projects in the company's history. The 140,000 SF interactive museum is based on a unique and visionary design by architect Frank Gehry. The building skin follows a flowing, organic form, like soundwaves made visible in steel.
Each of the building's 280 undulating structural ribs is unique, and making this remarkable structure constructible was an exercise in attention to detail. No one had ever built with curved I-beams like those called for in this design; as general contractor Hoffman played a key role in mediating between the architects and the fabricators who would have to turn this vision into reality.
In a groundbreaking use of computer technology the building was designed in CATIA, a software package created for the aerospace industry. CATIA allowed the project team to translate EMP's three-dimensional shapes into coordinated drawings and geometric data that builders and fabricators could understand. Hoffman worked closely with the fabricators on every element to make certain that they got Gehry's designs right, and that in the end all of the pieces fit.