The new museum is located at the gateway to the UC Davis campus and serves as an icon visible from Interstate 80 day or night. The 30,000 sf museum houses the university’s fine art collection and provides space for exhibitions, lectures, artist residencies and studio classes.R+C was the structural engineer on the project’s design-build team. An architectural feature and engineering accomplishment, the 50,000 sf free-flowing Grand Canopy is made of perforated aluminum triangular beams. The canopy seems to float atop a series of interconnected interior and exterior spaces but is in fact supported by slim steel columns. The canopy varies in height and the intricate patterns that the beams create rarely repeat, creating an organic feeling to the structure that reflects components of the surrounding agricultural landscape.