Helping to Create an Icon, Twice
Not many people get to work on an icon, but David Campbell has worked on BC Place in Vancouver, British Columbia twice. Campbell, a structural engineer, first worked on the air-supported dome roof in the 1980s and now he has returned to work on the new cable-supported retractable roof project.
The new BC Place roof will be the largest cable, fabric fully-retractable roof in the world.
Campbell leads a team of engineers who are ensuring the roof not only meets provincial building codes, but all of the demands a multi-purpose stadium must face. During the Olympic Games, BC Place’s original air-supported roof had to support 140 tonnes of lighting and show equipment, which Campbell’s team evaluated while they tested the new roof’s design for demands like this, as well as 7,000 tonnes of snow, the potential for thousands of celebrating BC Lions fans, and even BC’s legendary windstorms.
How do they do this? In the 80s, Campbell says they used computers that took up an entire wall to test their designs and jokes that they were about as powerful as the laptop he now has. Today, computer programs are still used to test designs by simulating digitally the structure’s response to load conditions such as snow and wind.
Campbell says the environment can be ‘brutal’ on a building but his team are making sure the design for the new BC Place roof will last so Vancouver’s skyline icon will remain for the 21st century - maybe even longer.
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