Field Museum of Natural History
Client Ask: Create a one of kind high-capacity hoisting system that can be easily controlled by venue staff, and with a capacity of up to 18,000 lbs. The hoisting system needs to fit within a historic building’s structural ceiling capacity and exist below the sky lights over a main public space. Also critical: the system needs to be installed with no impact to patrons as that portion of the museum is the primary hub to all other areas.
Flyhouse knows its way around Chicago’s historic—and nearly half million square foot Field Museum. Flyhouse crews have provided rigging solutions for a range of projects over the years and the Field team tapped into our expertise for a recent dinosaur-sized project that evolved in a few phases.
The museum underwent a major renovation of their Stanley Field Hall to replace and relocate the world-renowned T-rex, SUE. This tyrannosaurus rex skeleton had been on display since May 2000, with a cast of the largest dinosaur ever found.
As of 2023, a new, even bigger dinosaur has made Field its home. A 46-foot cast of Spinosaurus, the world’s largest predatory dinosaur lives, suspended over the natural history museum’s Stanley Field Hall. Sobek the Spinosaurus can be found suspended, mid-swim, over the Stanley Field Hall near Field Museum’s other dinosaur residents. More recently, museum staff decided they’d like more flexibility, where Sobek could be hung at different elevations to better utilize Stanley Hall every day and for special museum events.
Our crew was recently back onsite to relocate and repurpose rigging points, and install a new custom hoist, allowing the Sobek to travel to different positions and giving the museum much flexibility in how Stanley Hall may be set up for various events. This offers Field a timely, practical, cost-effective solution to this dinosaur-sized challenge.
Field understood early in the concept phase that specialty rigging would be required to fulfill their imaginative dreams. Their artistic team collaborated with Flyhouse’s automation design team to make sure these ideas could become a reality through unique Flyhouse solutions.
An 18,000 lb Request
This wasn’t the first Flyhouse collaboration with Field Museum. In 2018, Field Museum’s 125th-anniversary inspired an ambitious renovation of Stanley Field Hall. The project brought together inanimate matter and a living elements display by incorporating a live hanging garden known as Nature Clouds exhibit, which showcased plants from the prehistoric era.
The hanging gardens exhibit was a 3D-printed display that supporting plant life from a prehistoric era. Each garden weighed 5,000 – 18,000 lbs. Along with the gardens, a life-sized replica of the largest flying reptile ever discovered, a 35 feet quetzalcoatlus, was suspended from the ceiling, along with two smaller 90 lob Pteranodons.
Over the course of six weeks, Flyhouse worked in the ceiling to create the infrastructure to support the weight of the display’s hanging items. Flyhouse custom designed and engineered a massive OSHA-compliant working platform with a 14-ton working capacity that transported all the equipment from the ground to the ceiling. This kept patrons, equipment, and museum aesthetics underneath, safe from overhead dangers and providing complete access to the ceiling throughout installation.
To make this experiential space a reality, Flyhouse used two large and one medium capacity custom hoists to suspend and move the four Clouds. Each had a speed of 16 fpm with variable speed in acceleration and deceleration and the ability to travel to three pre-set positions using a wireless pendant on the main floor. While the Clouds remained in a higher fixed position when the museum was open to the public, the three pre-set positions allowed museum staff to lower or raise the Clouds for special events and maintenance.
Whatever challenge Field Museum brings, we strive to deliver extraordinary rigging that exceeds industry and safety standards, and truly unique, innovative designs. That’s how we fly!
