Alabama Coliseum
1555 Federal Drive, Montgomery, Alabama
32-24-11 N, 86-16-16 W
Structural Engineer: Ammann & Whitney
Architect: Richard Adams for Sherlock Smith & Adams
Builder: J.A. Jones Construction Co.
Configuration: Cylindrical short barrel vault shell with exterior supporting ribs
Measurements: Shell spans 286 feet and is 3.5 inches thick
Purpose: Arena
Year: 1950
This is a large thin-shell structure by Ammann & Whitney, an engineering firm that gave Roberts & Schaefer competition in the years after World War II. This building uses a barrel vault roof cut into a circular plan, giving the supporting ribs an odd, spiderlike appearance.
The author visited in October 2018.
References
American Society of Civil Engineers. "Design of Cylindrical Concrete Shell Roofs." ASCE-Manuals of Engineering Practice-No. 31, 1952: 9-10.
"Architects Name 15 'Significant' Buildings." Montgomery Advertiser-Journal, February 2, 1958.
Canada Cement Company, Limited. "Roofs with a New Dimension." Portland Cement Association, 1959: 16.
Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute. "230 days saved by using reinforced concrete." Architectural Record (November, 1950): 72.
Keller, William B. "Architecture for Community and Spectacle: The Roofed Arena in North America, 1853-1968" (PhD diss., University of Delaware, 2007), 199-102, accessed August 24, 2017, http://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/88.
"Old Romans Had Nothing On Us When It Comes To A Coliseum." Montgomery Advertiser, October 18, 1953.
Oravas, Gunhard-AEstius. "Thin Shells: Engineering Fitness and Architectural Form." Architectural Record (April 1960): 218-19.
Raafat, Aly Ahmed. Reinforced Concrete in Architecture. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1958: 141, 144.
Salvadori, Mario G. "Thin Shells: Article 3: Examples Here and Abroad." Architectural Record (November, 1954): 217.
Weitze, Karen J. Cold War Infrastructure for Strategic Air Command: The Bomber Mission. Langley Air Force Base, VA: United States Air Force, Air Combat Command, 1999: 32.
Whitney, Charles S. "Reinforced Concrete Thin Shell Structures." Journal of the American Concrete Institute 24, no. 6 (February 1953): 521-536.
Updated April 18, 2021