Architecture students build soaring spaceframe within National Building Museum’s Great Hall

Architecture students from The Catholic University of America are constructing a large-scale spaceframe installation in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum, presenting a full-scale demonstration of a structural system developed in collaboration with industry partners. Titled Lightness of Strength: The Wave, the installation consists of a 180-by-55-foot recycled aluminum spaceframe weighing approximately 4,300 pounds. 

Built between December 18 and 19, 2025, the structure will be on public view from December 27, 2025, through February 8, 2026. Suspended above visitors, the installation wraps around four of the Great Hall’s Corinthian columns and is enclosed with a tensioned high-performance fabric membrane.

The project showcases a novel spaceframe technology developed by Mike Graves of DSI Spaceframes, in collaboration with Catholic University professor Tonya Ohnstad and graduate student Dave Stephen. The system incorporates internal tensioned cables within tubular struts, allowing for thinner, lighter, and more standardized components.

Materials for the installation include recycled aluminum donated by Hydro and Dyneema Composite Fabric. An accompanying exhibition housed in a geodesic dome explains the technical innovation, material sustainability, and the broader evolution of spaceframe structures.

You can follow progress on the construction of the installation through the National Building Museum's live webcam feed here.