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Formative Experiences: Saarinen's Shells And The Evolutionary Impact Of Construction Challenges, Rob Whitehead

Architecture Conference Proceedings and Presentations

A half-century ago, Eero Saarinen and Associates collaborated with the structural engineers of Ammann & Whitney in the design, documentation, and oversight of two very different, and completely unprecedented, concrete shell projects: Kresge Auditorium (1951-55) and TWA Terminal (1956-62). The building designs were intentionally anomalous from traditional shell projects, particularly in the manner by which they deviated from conventional structural logic of their forms-albeit in very different ways.

Unsurprisingly, the construction challenges for the projects were equally different and profound, requiring a great deal of innovation and collaboration. Design teams had to devise ways to work collaboratively to address the particular ...