Anton Tedesko

Father of Thin Shell Concrete Construction

In America
 Early Life

• Diploma in civil engineering from the Technical University of Vienna

• He was sent to Chicago to promote thin concrete shells in collaboration with

Roberts & Schaefer

• During World War II and the years following, Tedesko designed a number of
long-spanning thin shell concrete roofs to serve as aircraft hangars.

• He improved upon the designs of Dyckerhoff and Widmann by developing the

wide spanning roof, the short barrel shell roof, and the ribless shell roof.
 Introduction

Tedesko’s introduction of thin concrete shells in the U.S. is captured in the story
of three structures: a hemispherical dome (Hayden Planetarium), a small set of
long barrels (Brook Hill Farm Dairy Exhibit at the 1933 “Century of Progress”
World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois using the Z-D system), and a large wide-
spanning, short barrel roof (Hershey Sports Arena). All were built within three
years of each other.
 Ziess dome
• The innovation of thin-shell concrete
roofing at Jena was made possible by the
use of a geodesic structure of precisely-cut
iron rods that reduced the weight of the
roof on load-bearing walls, as well as gave
it remarkable integrity to withstand live load
(the shifting weight added to a structure by
wind and weather) and dead load (the
weight added to load-bearing walls by the
materials of the roof itself that remain
stable). This type of structure is known as
a Zeiss network. The success of
Dyckerhoff and Widmann's designs, as well
as thin-shell concrete's low cost as
compared to alternative large roofing
structures, led to the concrete's use in
commercial applications throughout
Germany. The additional development of
Torkret, a process of quick-drying cement
on vertical surfaces, gave the additional
aesthetic benefit of the roof having a
smooth surface.
 Brook hill farm exhibition

• For the World’s Fair in 1933, Tedesko

failed to obtain the contract for the German
Pavilion but did get the stalls for Brook Hill
Farm’s dairy exhibit. Since the Brook Hill
stalls were temporary, Tedesko tested
them under ultimate loads before taking
them down after the Fair.
 Hersheys Arena
The overall width of the space was dictated by the ice hockey arena
size as well as seating for 7,000 people. Tedesko started out by
working with a span of 220 ft and chose the shell thickness of 3 1/2
in. based on previous experience
Tedesko chose to make the roof shell somewhat elliptical to
increase the stiffness near the horizontal supporting boundary.
He knew that the arches do not act alone, nor does the shell carry all of
the roof load alone. Rather, the shell at the crown carries nearly all the
roof load not to the arch, but down the curved shell itself in the Nø
direction.
Moving down the shell from the crown, the forces flow more
towards the supporting arch rib.
The scaffolding structure was built of yellow pine lumber, and the entire
scaffolding and formwork structure rested on a series of 250 jacks
 Hayden Planetarium

Span - 27m
Thickness - 80mm
Concrete shell structure

America’s first permanent

concrete shell structure

The Hayden Planetarium

project forced Tedesko to
abandon the application of
Zeiss networks and to work
with American engineers and
contractors who were openly
resistant to foreign technology.
 Frankfurt market hall
• The Großmarkthalle Frankfurt am Main is a
massively built hall with a roof freely
spanning 50 m (164 ft). At the time of its
construction it was the world's
widest monocoque construction. The
entirety of the area is roofed by 15 barrel
vaults with a support span of 36.9 m
(121 ft) and a vault span of 14.1 m (46 ft).
The concrete "barrels" (Zeiss-Dywidag
barrels) are made of concrete and are only
7 cm (23/4 in) thick. Their basic form is a
half ellipse of 6 m (20 ft) height.

• Monocoque, structural skin, is a structural

system where loads are supported through
an object's external skin, similar to an egg
shell.
 NORTH ISLAND SEAPLANE
HANGAR
Structure: Barrel shell

Function : Aircraft Hangar

Location : San Diego, California, USA

Height : 73.5 m

Span : 2 X 90.83 m
 Vehicle Assembly Building

• Made for putting together huge spacecraft,

NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (or
VAB) is one of the world’s largest buildings.
At 525 feet, it’s way taller than the Statue of
Liberty (a mere 305 feet), and in terms of
volume, it’s equal to 3.75 Empire State
Buildings.

•
May Daniels and Fisher
department store
Denver Coliseum