Hoberman Arch
Coordinates: 40°45′28″N 111°57′36″W / 40.75778°N 111.96000°W
The Hoberman Arch was the centerpiece of the Olympic Medals Plaza in downtown Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics. Following the Olympics the arch was moved to the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park where, along with the Olympic cauldron, it was one of the main highlights and an important part of Salt Lake's Olympic legacy. In August 2014 the arch was removed from the park and a new public display location is currently being planned.
The arch was designed by Chuck Hoberman to be used as a mechanical curtain for the Olympic Medal Plaza's stage. It is a semi-circular aluminum structure, which opened like the iris of a human eye. The arch design was inspired by Utah's natural stone arches, such as Delicate Arch. At the time of its construction the arch was the largest unfolding structure in the world.
It took Hoberman four months to design the arch (with support from Buro Happold). Specialized knuckle assemblies, which allowed the arch to expand and contract, were fabricated by Hudson Machine Works in Brewster, NY. These were paired with the arch’s structural components and pieced together in its entirety by Scenic Technologies of New Windsor, New York, who spent an additional four months in constructing the arch in their warehouse in New York. It was then dissembled and then trucked to Utah, being reassembled in January 2002, and unveiled to the public and media by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC), on January 25, 2002.
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