National Medal of Honor Museum – Arlington, TX

Best Architectural–Commercial Building

The National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas, is designed as a landmark of remembrance: a 200-foot-by-200-foot elevated structure that appears to hover above the landscape. That signature form is made possible by precast concrete, supported entirely by five monumental, inverted conical precast columns symbolizing the five branches of the U.S. military.

Precast was selected over cast-in-place systems for its quality control, precision, speed, and the ability to integrate structure and utility routing into a single coordinated system.

Fast Facts

• Project: National Medal of Honor Museum

• Address: 1111 AT&T Way, Arlington, TX 76011

• Award Category: Best Architectural–Commercial Building

• Precaster / Submitter: Wells (Hillsboro, TX)

• Architect: Rafael Viñoly Architects (New York, NY)

• General Contractor: Linbeck Group (Fort Worth, TX)

• Owner: National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation (Arlington, TX)

The Precast Solution

Each of the five columns serves as the museum’s primary vertical support and vertical utility distribution, carrying dead, live, wind, and seismic loads through exposed hollow columns while maintaining architectural clarity.

Column system (how it works):

• 7 tapered segments per column, stacked as a ring-based system (35 total units)
• Dimensions: approx. 12’-4” diameter at base tapering to 6’-4” at top, 14” thickness
• Reinforcement: No. 11 bars, connected with grouted NMB sleeves (80 sleeves per column) to create structural continuity with a clean architectural finish
• Performance: designed for axial loads up to 2,000 tons and resistance to wind/seismic forces
• Integrated access: hollow interiors as MEP chases, with 2’x3’ access doors cast into bases for maintenance
• Finish: acid-washed, integral color; as-cast finish

 

Innovation highlights

This project required museum-grade precision and structural ambition. Precast delivered both:

• Ring-based megacolumn system: shifted from early monolithic concepts to modular rings for constructability and transport

• Match-casting for tight tolerances: segments were test-fit in the yard to maintain < 1/8” tolerance, creating nearly invisible joints

• Upside-down casting method: rings cast inverted to counter pressure from tapered geometry, then flipped post-cure

• BIM + prefabricated utility routing: coordinated vertical bundles through the columns to minimize site disruption

• Field precision controls: Total Stations/data collectors + tapered shims; lifted with a 330-ton crane

   

Schedule + delivery

• Museum construction began in March 2022 and was completed in March 2025 (aligning with Medal of Honor Day)

• Precast production start: August 2022
  

• Precast erection start: November 2, 2022

• All column ring installation: completed in under 4 weeks

Sustainability + resilience (plain English)

LEED certification wasn’t pursued, but the project embodies sustainability through material efficiency, reduced waste, long-term durability, and resilient blast- and storm-resistant performance.

A project built with meaning

This wasn’t “just” a technical achievement. The team intentionally created moments of tribute during fabrication and delivery, including a plant recognition moment for employee veterans and a veteran motorcycle escort of the first megacolumn rings along I-35 to the site.

Project Team:

• Precast Manufacturer: Wells (Hillsboro, TX)
• Architect: Rafael Viñoly Architects (New York, NY)
• General Contractor: Linbeck Group (Fort Worth, TX)
• Owner: National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation (Arlington, TX)