Structure as Architecture

by Josefina P. Martinez, Vice Pres.; Walter Puloore & Assoc., Tampa, FL 33602,


Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1988, Vol. 58, Issue 11, Pg. 63-65


Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

The newest structure at Tampa International Airport in Florida is Airside F, part of an expansion of the first airport designed so that passengers are shuttled via monorail between a main landside terminal and airside buildings. Designed so that large groups of passengers can be processed efficiently, the building's 190,000 sq ft are divided between two levels (earlier airside buildings have three) with all passenger services on the top floor. A flexible gate arrangement, however, shunts passengers arriving from other countries directly to U.S. Customs on the first level. The building varies from 100 to 50 ft wide, is 850 ft long with 15 gates. Its most striking architectural feature is the roof framing, a series of triangulated steel pipe trusses that span the top floor to leave it column-free. The arches rest on concrete buttresses, with the tied arch effect provided by post-tensioned concrete girders in the pan-joist concrete floor. For the central dome area, two intersecting trusses span 141 ft to form the focal point for arriving and departing passengers.

Subject Headings: Passengers | Building design | Floors | Trusses | Steel pipes | Steel columns | Concrete

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