Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In 1990 the Suncoast Dome was completed in St. Petersburg, Florida. The stadium
was designed by HOK, Architects and the roof was engineered by the Geiger firm. It
is the first cable dome designed for baseball, and the 210-meter-diameter roof is tilted
six degrees to provide more seating behind home plate and the infield area. The
structure uses four hoops to support the fiberglass fabric and its acoustic liner.
The largest cable dome to date is the Georgia Dome (Figure 1-16) in Atlanta,
completed in 1992. Designed for football, it has an oval plan, 235 x 186 meters, with
a 56-meter-long truss running down the middle. The design of the roof was
accomplished by the engineer Matthys Levy of Weidlinger Associates.
Figure 1-16
Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, 1992
(Photograph with permission from Matthys Levy, Chairman Emeritus, Weidlinger
Associates, Inc.)
It has three elliptical hoops between the truss and the compression ring. It is different
from previous cable domes in that the ridge cables of each radial "truss" do not lie in
the same plane but form triangles with the vertical strut system. This results in a
diamond pattern of hyperbolic paraboloids for the fabric roof panels.
Today, cable domes have lost their popularity for two reasons. First, the rigid steel
roof has proven to be more economical. Second, the owners of contemporary sports
venues often desire a roof that can open and close to accommodate different weather
conditions.
1.6 Recent Tensioned Fabric Structures
In 1998 the architecture firm of Altoon and Porter designed an iconic rooftop
structure for the Kaleidoscope Shopping Center in Mission Viejo, California. (See
Figure 1-17.) It was engineered by Huntington Design Associates of Oakland,
California and has eight woven panels of PVC-coated polyester. The structure is
supported by tubular steel members that provide attachment points for the catenary
edge cables as well the tension ring at the base of the panels.
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