History Lesson

Covered Coliseum: Dorton Arena

HE Houston Astrodome, the Matthew Nowicki’s saddle- Dorton wanted a building that would serve Georgia Dome, and many other shaped roof design for Dorton as the centerpiece of his plan to expand the fair large, covered sports venues trace their Arena aimed to give every into a year-round exposition. The new pavilion ancestry to a relatively little-known spectator plenty of head- was to be used for judging livestock as well as structure that was built not for athlet- room and a clear, column- for horse shows, circuses, and other events. Ar- ic eventsT but for judging livestock. Known as free view of the exhibition chitects of less imagination might simply have Dorton Arena, this revolutionary building was floor. At the same time, it al- mimicked the design of existing arenas with the first modern stadium to employ a perma- lowed an unusual amount of conventional roofs, but Nowicki saw the proj- nent cable-supported roof. sunlight into the building. ect as an opportunity to try something new. The concept for the arena, which was erect- In a remarkable set of freehand sketches, ed in 1952 on the North Carolina State Fair Grounds, in Ra- Nowicki turned conventional long-span roof design on its leigh, was the brainchild of Matthew Nowicki, an architect head. In a typical covered stadium of the day, spectators in who was born in Russia and received his training in Warsaw, the uppermost seats often found themselves bending over Poland. Nowicki went on to become an architectural am- lest they bump into the ceiling. Nowicki solved that problem bassador of sorts, serving as a cultural attaché to the Polish by creating a saddle-shaped roof that curved upward at the consulate in Chicago and as a consultant on the design of the sides of the building. This shape gave every spectator plenty United Nations headquarters building, in New York City. of headroom as well as a clear view of the floor of the arena. At In 1948 he joined the architecture faculty at North Caro- the same time, it allowed an unusual amount of sunlight into lina State College (now North Carolina State University). the topmost level of the building. The result was a column- When J. Sibley Dorton, the manager of the state fair, com- free space that would feel just as open and airy for the specta- missioned the Raleigh architect William Henley Deitrick to tors in the highest seats as for those at ground level. design the arena, Deitrick engaged Nowicki as a consultant Even more novel than the shape of the roof was the means

on the project. of its support. Instead of bearing directly on columns or AND CONSUMER SERVICES OF AGRICULTURE CAROLINA DEPARTMENT NORTH

[46] Civil Engineering s e p t e m b e r 2014

ce0914p46-49.indd 46 8/26/14 4:28 PM walls, the roof would be held up by a network of steel cables. The ca- bles, in turn, would stretch between two inclined parabolic arches of re- inforced concrete rising from com- mon abutments on two sides of the building. These parabolic structures would slope in opposite directions, each at an angle of approximately 25 degrees. The entire structural system could be expressed in terms of the interplay between two basic en- gineering principles: tension and

BELOW compression. The arches would function in compression, while the roof would be in tension. ture, much detailed design work remained to be done. Fred As Henry Petroski, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, explains in Severud, F.ASCE, of New York City–based Severud-Elstad- Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering (New York Krueger Associates, performed the structural engineering. City: Knopf, 2004), which includes a chapter on Dorton William Muirhead Construction Company, of Durham, Arena, tension structures carry their loads by resisting being North Carolina, was engaged as the general contractor. The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, pulled apart. This resistance typically depends on being an- Bethlehem Steel Company, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was

ABOVE; chored to some other structure, as seen in the cable subcontractor, and John R. Gove, the anchorages of a suspension bridge or the The architect William Deitrick’s faith- of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was the stakes of a tent. In Dorton Arena, the roof fulness to Matthew Nowicki’s origi- surveyor. cables are anchored in the inclined arches. nal design, which featured a cable- From Severud’s point of view, the most The genius of Nowicki’s design was to cross supported roof stretched between a noteworthy aspect of the building was its the ends of the arches at the centerline of the pair of inclined arches, is reflected use of materials. The cables supporting the building, where they bear against massive in this rendering. Below the point at roof were made of steel, which is efficient abutments. As a result, the tension of the which the arches intersect, their low- in tension, while the inclined arches were roof is transformed into a compressive force er extensions and a central vertical made of concrete, which is efficient in com- that the arch legs transfer to the abutments, column combine to form a “tripod,” pression. In this way, the designers used making the building as a whole surprisingly below, that supports the arches. the properties of both materials to good economical and efficient. effect, making the $1.5-million structure Tragically, Nowicki did not live to see his ideas realized. extremely economical. On his way home from a project in India in 1950, he died in The network of cables actually consisted of two sets of a plane crash at the age of 40. Deitrick assumed oversight of cables at right angles to each other, forming a grid that the project but remained faithful to Nowicki’s vision. The stretched 300 ft at its widest point. Each cable had to be design should be changed as little as possible, he insisted, “as sized accurately in advance so that it would sag in just the Matthew would have wanted it.” right way to create the desired saddle shape. The roof it-

NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES, AND CONSUMER SERVICES, OF AGRICULTURE CAROLINA DEPARTMENT NORTH Because Nowicki’s drawings were conceptual in na- self was originally intended to be fabric, but corrugated

s e p t e m b e r 2014 Civil Engineering [47]

ce0914p46-49.indd 47 8/26/14 4:28 PM BELOW WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, TOP RIGHT; AIA NORTH CAROLINA, AIA NORTH The arena’s concrete columns, left, not only supported the dead load of the arches but also acted as mullions fram- TOP LEFT; ing the glass exterior of the building. steel panels were substituted to reduce costs. The contractor Tragically, Matthew Nowicki did not live to see his building erected. then topped the panels with insulation and conventional William Deitrick, above, saw the project through to completion. roofing materials. Among the challenges associated with the construction of Hurricane Hazel swept through the area with winds gust- the roof was the possibility that wind might cause it to flut- ing to 100 mph. The roof successfully weathered the storm. ter. To prevent uplift, the contractor installed guy cables that The arches, which rose 85 ft above the ground, intersect- extended from the vertical columns on the perimeter of the ed at two points on opposite sides of the building at a height building to many of the points at which the cables intersect- of 25 ft. To the casual observer, the parts of the arches above ed one another. This system was put to the test in 1954, when and below the two intersections appeared to be continuous. In fact, however, both arches contained hinges at the inter- J. Sibley Dorton, the manager of the North Carolina State Fair sections in lieu of conventional expansion joints in order to Grounds, wanted a building that would serve as the centerpiece of his accommodate the expansion and contraction of the concrete. plan to expand the fair into a year-round exposition. Since its Below the arch intersections, the completion, in 1952, the arena that bears his structural behavior was name has been used not only for judg- not as simple as it

ing livestock—its original pur- might appear, AND CONSUMER SERVICES, OF AGRICULTURE CAROLINA DEPARTMENT NORTH pose—but also for horse shows, circuses, and other events.

ce0914p46-49.indd 48 8/26/14 4:28 PM as Severud notes in his own article on the Dorton Arena, a little-known On the sides of the arena were vertical con- project (”Materials Combined to Advan- building in Raleigh, North Caro- crete columns approximately 8 ft apart that tage—Concrete in Compression, Steel in lina, influenced the design and not only supported the dead load of the arches Tension,” Civil Engineering, March 1954, construction of such celebrated but also acted as mullions framing the glass pages 52–55). “The continuations of the structures as the Houston As- exterior of the building. The columns enclosed arches are not structurally part of the arches trodome and the Georgia Dome. a space designed to accommodate some 5,000 but are members of a ‘tripod’ supporting the The cable-supported roof was people in permanent seats and another 4,000 arches,” he explains. “This tripod has three originally intended to be fabric, in chairs on the arena floor. The elliptical per- legs, two of which are the extensions of the but corrugated steel panels were formance space in the middle of the building arches and the third is the center column di- substituted to reduce costs. measured 221 ft long and 127 ft wide. rectly under the intersection.... For varying Known at first as the State Fair Arena or conditions of wind and snow load, [the center column] may simply the Livestock Judging Pavilion, the structure at- be either in tension or in compression.” The column keeps tracted a great deal of attention from the architecture and the tripod from tipping inward or outward, making it “a vi- engineering community when it opened, in 1952. It was tally essential element of the structure.” renamed in Dorton’s honor in 1961 and Belowground, the foundation design was complicated by listed in the National Register of Historic the fact that no rock foundation was available, only firm clay. Places in 1973. In 2002 ASCE accorded The legs of the arches bore on concrete abutments, but the landmark status to the building as part of thrust was so great and would act at such a small angle with its Historic Civil Engineering Landmark respect to the ground that the engineers had to devise some Program. —JEFF L. BROWN means of preventing the footings from slipping in the hori- zontal direction. The solution was to use prestressed steel ca- Jeff Brown is a contributing editor to Civil Brown NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES OF AGRICULTURE CAROLINA DEPARTMENT NORTH bles to tie the abutments together underground. Engineering.

s e p t e m b e r 2014 Civil Engineering [49]

ce0914p46-49.indd 49 8/26/14 4:28 PM