San Jose Civic Center Rotunda

San Jose, CA | 110 foot diameter

With a nod toward traditional civic projects that are identified with domes, the San Jose Civic Center features a 100-foot open rotunda capped by a modern interpretation of a dome. The rotunda serves as an open-air gathering and public performance space. The dome supports a tension grid glass skin and a moveable sunscreen that tracks the sun during the day. Unlike conventional domes that have continuous semi-circular or elliptical ribs leaping from a continuous spring line, the dome on this project features discontinuous ribs and a offset spring line. The engineering analysis and design of the dome had to anticipate and address the primary and secondary forces and deformations that results from this unusual geometry. Structural steel box sections, filled with concrete to reduce deflection, form the primary structural elements.