An engineering achievement, the Sweet Sixteen sculpture east of the Phebe Conley Art Building catches your eye as you park near the Peters Building. Many of us just think of it as "that triangle statue." It does have interesting angles, which can fascinate observers looking through the work from either end. Who hasn't spent some time admiring it? And, let's admit it, who hasn't peered at it from different perspectives, trying to grasp how it seems to change depending on a viewer's perspective.

The name of the sculpture, while it might call to mind romantic notions, is actually mathematical. In fact, Sweet Sixteen is so named because many of its dimensions are multiples of the number 16. The shapes are twisted 16 degrees off of zero degrees horizontally. The supports are buried eight feet. Each section weighs about 6,000 pounds and is three feet apart.

The monument is a gift to the campus by the artist, Greg O'Halloran, a graduate of Fresno State who earned his M.A. in 1974.

So the next time you pass by the Sweet Sixteen monument, take the time to appreciate the outstanding work of one of our Fresno State alumni!

Research from An Album of Campus Sculptures by Allan Shields (Nov. 1998).