Just the Place for Moving Events

This article depicts the new Phoenix stadium in Arizona and the application of steel to construct it. RDS steel detailers helped realize this unique design through a series of the details their Auckland office building. The shape of the exterior takes its form from a barrel cactus, featuring an outer skin of large smooth panels composed of double curved steel cladding alternating with dramatic vertical slots of glass. The Stadium's roof is another achievement for steel, a retractable roof comprising of two 50m by 75m retractable panels, each weighing 500 tones.


This is an extract from"Steel Australia, Vol 2, Num 1, March 2008" page 26-27

The Geelong Westfield Shopping Plaza

The following images are taken of the portion of Geelong Westfield shopping plaza which is currently under construction. Some of may remember early when I posted images of the car park at this facility.

This Shows the cladding used to increase the fire resistance of the beams it covers, it was also seen in the car park.

















Joint for temporary bracing column






















Just a view from a to be window











The steel framing and construction of the separating walls.


















The placing of concrete slabs
















Steel framed columns covered in plywood cladding final finish yet to be added















Concrete column


















View of insulation from below and services running through beams













Roofing framing













The beginning of a travelator,









































Beams and fireproofing, also temporary structure for construction workers services












View the glazed area of wall















services connections to roof











Steel roofing














connection detail for steel beams













roofing and air duct
















Prefabricated concrete panels used to construct wall
































framing of windows in prefabricated concrete panel wall.










temporary supports used to hold prefabricated concrete panels in place











steel roofing structure from above

















bondek position above the insulation














Steel roofing
















connection of beams to rafters





















another roof detail















roof beams connection detail









A close up of the roofing insulation

Truck Station Weathers Road Rush

The Article depicts a busy southbound section of the F3 freeway just north of Sydney that recently welcomed a heavy vehicle checking facility. This new building is a typical steel structure. It provides for disabled access and amenities to AS1428 standard. In terms of construction the welds comply with tough B204 standard and the coatings quality to B220. The use of all hot dipped galvanised steel members and COLORBOND cladding for the 45m long 17.5m wide and over 6m high cover structure satisfactory meets design criteria. The Steel grade 300MPa was used for bars and sections to AS3679 standard, grade 350MPa for the hollow sections to AS1163 and 450MPa for the cold formed sections to AS1397. The 14m by 3.35, inspection office is finished in COLORBOND and LYSAGHT SPANDEK metal wall cladding, roof sheets, edge trims and roof ventilators.


This is taken from "Steel Australia, Vol 20, Num 3, September 2007" page 16-17

Geelong Waterfront Carousel

The Geelong Waterfront Carousel was constructed by McGlashan-Everist Architects in 1999. It is of mainly steel and glass construction. It is one of the more aesthetically dominant buildings of Geelong’s Waterfront.

The photo below depicts the canter lever corner roof section of the building. It shows the expansive steel mesh stretched of the curved steel framework, all joining to the central beam.

The photo below depicts the pin joint connection which supports the central beam mentioned above.

The photo below to the is view of the interior ceiling and the connection between the four corner beams being pin together allowing the forces of each beam to balance with each providing a state of equilibrium throughout the structure. The second photo below is the external joint that occurs between the two corners allow for gutter to be installed

This is Photos of the Geelong Westfield car park. It uses a suspended concrete slab as the floor/ceiling of the first and second level car parks. This concrete slab is supported by Bondek. An interesting not is the use of uneven mixture used to cover the concrete beams. Shown in the photo below where the cladding has crumbled off revealing the concrete beam this is used to make the beams more fire resistant

Thank you to Liesa Nunn for her information that the cladding is usually made out of lightweight vermiculite and gypsum or cement.

Mies van der Rohe

( Richard Israel and my self decide to focus our design on Mies van der Rohe's New National Gallery, Berlin Germany. We concluded that this would be a good choice as it allow for large functional spaces and use modernist massing which would provide, as we believe, simpler construction techniques .

Concrete Panel Con Detail