First, some shots looking back down as I made my ascent up the Incline. Pretty much the same stuff I shared two years ago.


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General Electric had this hangar constructed in 1946 and 1947. Roberts and Schaefer were the engineers, so it is probable that Anton Tedesko designed (or oversaw the design of) the thin-shell concrete structure. Corbetta Construction Company was the builder.


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C.R. Maguire and Associates were the architects and Abraham I. Israel was the structural engineer for this building, which was built in 1960. The thin-shell concrete roof has multiple barrel shells, interconnected to form groined vaults. This concrete roof covers a space of 420 feet by 300 feet with only 2 interior columns!


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Here are some interior images. The size of the enclosed space is quite stunning.


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One of the initial goals of our vacation road trip was getting a good look at this structure, also called the arch hangar. This hangar (and another just like it at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota) has a thin-shell concrete barrel vault roof spanning 340 feet! This massive hangar was completed in 1949, and was built as a prototype B-36 ( Read more... )

This building, dedicated in 1967, is the design of architect Margaret M. Ross. The roof is composed of thin-shell concrete hyperbolic paraboloids, joined together to form inverted umbrella shapes. The appearance of the shells is even more striking inside the building.


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This was the first large-scale thin-shell concrete project in the US, constructed in 1936. Engineer Anton Tedesko of the Roberts & Schaefer Company designed the building, with 3.5 inch thick barrel vaults spanning 222 feet. This was his third thin-shell project in the US, after the first Hayden Planetarium in New York and the temporary dairy barns ( Read more... )

Completed in 1951, the thin-shell concrete roof spans 204 feet and is 3 inches thick. Architects were Edgarton & Edgarton; structural engineers were Ammann & Whitney. From ground level you can only get occasional glimpses of the barrel vault roof, so we found a parking garage to get a better view.


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This complex was built in 1960. The grandstand roof consists of five joined, thin-shell concrete inverted umbrella shapes. Each measures 60 feet by 116 feet and is 4 inches thick. Adjoining the grandstand is a large building with a folded-plate concrete roof. Near the grandstand on the other side is a smaller building with a folded-plate roof. ( Read more... )

This massive structure was constructed between 1959 and 1963. The circular, edge-supported dome is 400 feet in diameter, composed of folded-plate concrete segments 3.5" thick. Max Abramovitz of Harrison & Abramovitz was the architect. Edward Cohen of Ammann & Whitney was the structural engineer ( Read more... )