Engineering a Medieval Window

With the Hood Museum

j55 picture with Kevin Baron
Holding up the first of 66 color-3D printed replicas with Victory, Nathan, Kevin, and the Stratasys J-55.
Project process photo

History

66 Fragmented Artifacts

Stuck disassembled in storage since the 1970s, the Hood's ~1400s Gothic-style window passed through the collections of William Randolph Hearst and Bonnie Smith (pictured).

Museum curators were unsure how to arrange, structurally support, and economically display this valuable, fragile puzzle. Enter the engineers!

My Role

As 3D modeling and visualization lead, my responsibility was collecting, cataloguing, and processing 3D-data for each unique stone. I developed the custom pipeline below, producing hundreds of organized models tailored for web display, detailed inspection, and color 3D-printing.

With this data, I helped extract geometric features for Alexander's ordering algorithm, which enabled me to virtually assemble the whole window. I generated promotional renders and ran the Machine Shop's J-55 for ~80 hours, producing over 70 physical full-color scale replicas. It was great to work with Dr. Mattison (The Hood), Kevin Baron (M-shop), Dr. Camerlenghi (Art Department), and the Dream Lab, and I remain grateful for their support.

Capstone project image
Rose window work in progress
Capstone project image
3D-scanning is fun! Below is a 3D-viewer akin to the tool we provided the Museum.
Project process photo
An arrangement of the printed 1:5 models.

Teamwork

After consulting with experts and local contractors, our team delivered budgeted plans, design work, and stability analysis for installation within a historic building's wall. Hundreds of precise pins safely hold each fragile sandstone artifact separately, while maintaining visibility from both sides. A scale model implementing this design was created and presented to the museum.

Society of Engineers Prize
Society of Engineers Prize
We received Dartmouth's Society of Engineers Prize at graduation!
Thayer school's oldest (1928), the DSE prize is "awarded annually for outstanding performance in an engineering project."
Interactive 3D Models!
Explore a representative stone from each of the 3 rings.
Pinch to zoom. Left mouse/drag to rotate. Panning is right mouse or two-finger drag. For mobile & PC.

Thank You

Thank you to Elizabeth Mattison (Hood Museum), Nicola Camerlenghi (Art Department), and the Dream Lab for their sponsorship, help and expertise.

This was a capstone project at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. Thank you to professors Solomon Diamond, William Scheideler, and Emily Monroe. Thank you to Kevin Baron and Joe Poisson (M-shop), Vicki May (faculty advisor), and Abigail Hughes (group TA).

Thank you to the team, Alexander Zhelyazkov '25, Nathan Tamkin '26, Rory McDowell '26, Elijah Butler '26, and Victory Kumbala '26.

Society of Engineers Prize
Rose window work in progress