Each summer, hundreds of thousands of visitors are attracted to Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina where acres of sunflowers delight, inspire, and reflect the local culture. This signature attraction provided a natural jumping-off point for the budding of a new and creative infrastructure project. Now, a pair of ordinary power poles that have long stood over the rolling hills of Dix Park have been transformed into enormous steel sunflowers. The two previously existing poles stood on the east side of Dix Park on Lake Wheeler Road, prominently against the Raleigh skyline as one travels into downtown.

In fall 2024, engineers from Duke Energy dismantled and replaced them with the steel sunflowers that artist Thomas Sayre created with Duke Energy engineers, American Pipe Bending fabricators, and the galvanizer.

“The challenge of making something magical from the kind of infrastructure we all see and take for granted every day instantly intrigued me,” says artist, Thomas Sayre.

Sayre began working closely with both the Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy and a team of Duke Energy engineers. Their goal was to develop an approach that would support the creative requirements of the project without compromising reliability of service for this growing area of downtown Raleigh. Hot-dip galvanizing was a critical component of these decisions. The structures also needed to remain accessible to crews that might need to perform maintenance or upgrades to the line. HDG’s exceptional cost-effectiveness, achieved by minimizing long-term maintenance expenses and ensuring lasting durability, made it the ideal choice for a project of this scale and visibility.

The innovative foray into ‘creative infrastructure’ comes courtesy of a collaboration that resulted in the two new sunflowers which tower to a height of 73 feet. Perched atop each galvanized tower is a galvanized steel ring, the head of the flower. Power lines run through the center of these capitulum rings. Each capitulum includes 48 polished stainless-steel petals, ranging in size from eight to ten feet. Each steel petal has a pattern of perforations representing the mathematical expression of the electromagnetic waves traveling through the powerlines. “We were having to put up some transmission towers along this route, and so the idea came to make it look like a sunflower since Dix Park grows sunflowers,” says Kendal Bowman, the President of Duke Energy.

Duke Energy, who mans the poles, says they’re responsible for powering a large area of Raleigh. The overall cost of the towers is $2,500,000, but they didn’t pay for the remodel. It was all funded by donations, so the work will not impact Duke Energy customer bills.

“This inspired project exemplifies both the creativity we aspire to foster at Dix Park and the spirit of community and collaboration that makes the park possible,” says Janet Cowell, CEO of Dix Park Conservancy (DPC), who was responsible for recruiting local private donors to fund the endeavor.

It was important to protect the grassroots investment made by the local community to bring this project to life. This is why the decision to galvanize the structural elements came without deliberation. Since HDG is already the standard for transmission poles like these (sunflowers or not); chosen for its natural aesthetic and more so its unparalleled corrosion resistance, these larger-than-life twin flowers that represent and empower the local culture will quite literally stand the test of time.