If you happen past the Carnegie Mellon University campus and notice most of the figures missing from the "Walking to the Sky" sculpture along Forbes Avenue, be assured no vandalism is involved.

The whole piece is being disassembled and re-engineered to make it more wind-resistant, the result of a November incident of unauthorized swaying.

Normally, the work has seven people striding up a 100-foot pole at a 75-degree angle, but yesterday only one figure remained, along with three on the ground that will be unchanged.

"We left one on the pole for now so it looks adequate as a sculpture temporarily," said artist Jonathan Borofsky from his home in Maine.

"The others were shipped back to Los Angeles where they were made so that we can fit them to the new pole that's also being built there. It will be a stiffer, stronger structure that will not have the movement in the wind that the original did."

The seven-ton sculpture, erected in 2006 in front of Warner Hall in an open area known as "the cut," was not in danger of falling on that windy fall day, he said at the time, but as a precaution it was stabilized with cable wires until a solution could be found.

The Pittsburgh version of Walking to the Sky is one of five variations that Mr. Borofsky has made and installed around the world, including two in Europe from the 1990s, one in Dallas and one in Seoul. It was inspired by a story his father told him about a friendly giant who lived in the sky.

"There's no problem with wind at any of the others," he said. "We still don't understand quite what went wrong ... a series of events could have come together on that particular day, but even a one-time event is one time too many. So it was time to change it out for a stronger pole. We think we have it solved."

All outdoor structures are engineered to accommodate a certain degree of movement, Mr. Borofsky said, and only when the movement exceeds that degree is there any cause for concern.

The new design is being tested in a wind tunnel at a laboratory in Colorado using a scale model. Its engineering is more complicated than that of the current one. For one thing, the diameter is wider at the base than at the tip, creating a tapered effect that will ward off undue movement.

"It should create a very nice illusion," he said.

Also, the interior steel connectors that invisibly join the figures to the pole are being redesigned to ensure a perfect fit. The work should be completed by mid-August before classes resume, the sculptor said.

Mr. Borofsky is a Carnegie Mellon graduate who received a bachelor's degree in 1964 and an honorary doctorate in 2006. His large-scale works appear all over the world.