College of Engineering Magazine- Fall 2001

Elegant Joinings

Michael Mulhern ('86) and his company, TriPyramid, bring architects' bold dreams to life

by Bari Walsh

If beauty is in the details, then Michael Mulhern ('86) makes very beautiful things indeed. Details are what Mulhern's company, TriPyramid Structures, specializes in: details that allow an architect's impossible dream to become a functioning reality.

Thanks to ligaments and connectors designed by TriPyramid, I. M. Pei's Pyramid at the Louvre doesn't fall in on itself, and Rafael Viñoly's frothy, apparently fragile Glass Hall at the Tokyo International Forum doesn't shatter. And because of TriPyramid's demanding aesthetic, more domestic triumphs are possible as well. The residents of a Chicago penthouse, for example, can rest assured that Architectural Digest itself couldn't point to a more elegant spiral staircase than theirs, which rises dramatically from a tiny point of metal on the floor (see left).

Elegance is a standard at TriPyramid, where form and function seem to come together as seamlessly as the tie rods, fittings, and other structural tension elements the firm designs for architects. Mulhern, president and co-founder of TriPyramid and recipient of a 2001 ENG Alumni Award, insists upon it. The company was founded in 1989 in response to a need in the architectural market for structural tension elements that were "elegant, unobtrusive, strong, and efficient," he says. Architects like Pei were coming up with designs whose supports and connectors needed to be small yet strong, as modern and daring as the designs themselves.

Mulhern and his partner, Tim Eliassen, were attuned to this need for lightweight, high-performing tension structures because they both had worked for a company called Navtec, which manufactures high-end yacht rigging systems. Mulhern had always loved boats, working as a merchant marine between 1980, when he received his undergraduate degree from Cornell, and 1985, when he enrolled in ENG's LEAP program and started work on a master's in aerospace and mechanical engineering.

Few clients are as discriminating, or as interested in performance at any cost, as Navtec's - yacht owners whose boats compete in the America's Cup and other premier boat races. They want "the absolute lightest, absolute strongest rigging, and it could never corrode, even under the worst conditions," Mulhern says. Navtec's solutions for that high-end market drew the eye of Pei, at work on his pyramid. He eventually commissioned the company to create a system that would support the pyramid's glazing without detracting from its appearance or coherence. The high-strength stainless steel rods the firm was designing for yachts were a perfect fit, aesthetically and structurally.

Struck by the architectural potential of their components, Mulhern and Eliassen branched off to form TriPyramid, though they still work with their colleagues at Navtec, who wanted to remain in the marine industry. The partners were right about the potential, and about the appeal their components would hold for architects trying to realize ever-more-daring visions. "The hot hands in architecture right now are Frank Gehry and Rafael Viñoly," Mulhern says proudly, "and we work with both of them. They develop problems that have no solution, and they say, 'Go solve it'."

TriPyramid sets up a three-way dialogue with a project's architect and structural engineer, striving always to meet its clients' needs rather than to act as a separate creative force in the process. "We come in when the structural engineer's expertise doesn't cover elegant connections, or when it doesn't cover exotic materials, like high-strength steel rods. Sometimes, the architect says, 'I want it to look just like that,' and our role is implementation. But sometimes, our role is helping them refine their vision - or realize what's possible."

Mulhern doesn't think of himself as artistic. "I'm a form-follows-function individual. When I solve problems, I solve them mechanically first. I'm unabashed about saying, 'Here's what works.' Yet, our challenge is making something so elegant that people will just stop and say, 'Wow.'"


Elegant Joinings Michael Mulhern ('86) and his company, TriPyramid, bring architects' bold dreams to life by Bari Walsh If beauty is in the details, then Michael Mulhern ('86) makes very beautiful things indeed. Details are what Mulhern's company, TriPyramid Structures, specializes in: details that allow an architect's impossible dream to become a functioning reality. Thanks to ligaments and connectors designed by TriPyramid, I. M. Pei's Pyramid at the Louvre doesn't fall in on itself, and Rafael Viñoly's frothy, apparently fragile Glass Hall at the Tokyo International Forum doesn't shatter. And because of TriPyramid's demanding aesthetic, more domestic triumphs are possible as well. The residents of a Chicago penthouse, for example, can rest assured that Architectural Digest itself couldn't point to a more elegant spiral staircase than theirs, which rises dramatically from a tiny point of metal on the floor (see left). Elegance is a standard at TriPyramid, where form and function seem to come together as seamlessly as the tie rods, fittings, and other structural tension elements the firm designs for architects. Mulhern, president and co-founder of TriPyramid and recipient of a 2001 ENG Alumni Award, insists upon it. The company was founded in 1989 in response to a need in the architectural market for structural tension elements that were "elegant, unobtrusive, strong, and efficient," he says. Architects like Pei were coming up with designs whose supports and connectors needed to be small yet strong, as modern and daring as the designs themselves. Mulhern and his partner, Tim Eliassen, were attuned to this need for lightweight, high-performing tension structures because they both had worked for a company called Navtec, which manufactures high-end yacht rigging systems. Mulhern had always loved boats, working as a merchant marine between 1980, when he received his undergraduate degree from Cornell, and 1985, when he enrolled in ENG's LEAP program and started work on a master's in aerospace and mechanical engineering. Few clients are as discriminating, or as interested in performance at any cost, as Navtec's - yacht owners whose boats compete in the America's Cup and other premier boat races. They want "the absolute lightest, absolute strongest rigging, and it could never corrode, even under the worst conditions," Mulhern says. Navtec's solutions for that high-end market drew the eye of Pei, at work on his pyramid. He eventually commissioned the company to create a system that would support the pyramid's glazing without detracting from its appearance or coherence. The high-strength stainless steel rods the firm was designing for yachts were a perfect fit, aesthetically and structurally. Struck by the architectural potential of their components, Mulhern and Eliassen branched off to form TriPyramid, though they still work with their colleagues at Navtec, who wanted to remain in the marine industry. The partners were right about the potential, and about the appeal their components would hold for architects trying to realize ever-more-daring visions. "The hot hands in architecture right now are Frank Gehry and Rafael Viñoly," Mulhern says proudly, "and we work with both of them. They develop problems that have no solution, and they say, 'Go solve it'." TriPyramid sets up a three-way dialogue with a project's architect and structural engineer, striving always to meet its clients' needs rather than to act as a separate creative force in the process. "We come in when the structural engineer's expertise doesn't cover elegant connections, or when it doesn't cover exotic materials, like high-strength steel rods. Sometimes, the architect says, 'I want it to look just like that,' and our role is implementation. But sometimes, our role is helping them refine their vision - or realize what's possible." Mulhern doesn't think of himself as artistic. "I'm a form-follows-function individual. When I solve problems, I solve them mechanically first. I'm unabashed about saying, 'Here's what works.' Yet, our challenge is making something so elegant that people will just stop and say, 'Wow.'"
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