6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for architechture students on an alternative process., January 4, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Raising the Roof: Creating the Kibbie Dome at the University of Idaho (Hardcover)
Perhaps the most amazing this is that this structure, visible from the Pullman highway, cost less than one million dollars to build. What a bargain when one considers that this building does for the UI what three separate facilities do for WSU if one discounts the differences in the athletic conferences. This slim book details how Trus Joist Corp. of Boise, ID, coordinated engineers and contractors and built the largest indoor college facility in the nation using laminated veneer lumber and the TRUSDEK structural system developed by Trus Joist. Not only that, they did it within ten months after the bid was accepted, completing the project in time for the first home football game. The author, Peter T. Johnson, knows what he's writing about. He was once the CEO of Trus Joist and he writes: "I remember the day in 1974 when the University opened the sealed bids in Moscow, ID. That morning, having experienced many times the bid, award, construct cycle, I felt the customary anxiety that prevails between the offer and the acceptance phases, as one might await a marriage proposal." Of course the bid was awarded and thus begins the union. And like many marriages, there were some interesting dips in the road. Warping due to weather moisture and other causes was a major concern. Finally, the project was completed and dedicated on Oct. 11, 1975. Its name is officially the William H. Kibbe-ASUI Activity Center Dome. Kibbie is a former UI student and was a monetary contributor to the project. Once finished, the Kibbie Dome received recongition in the architecture and engineering fields world wide. Engineering News Record, Architectural Record, Forest Products Journal, Western Building Design, and other major magazines covered the building extensively. Articles about the structure were published in the Japanes and German languages. The project's most prestigious nod came when the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded this impressive structure the ASCE Outstanding Structural Engineering Achievement Award for 1976 beating out a multi billion dollar mall project in New York State. In the last two decades plus, Palouse residents have come to take this awesome building for granted. "Raising the Roof" reminds us that great things can be accomplished with bold ingenuity and very little money, even in this 20th Century. I recommend this book to any and all architect students as well as those interested in local architectural history. Included are several beautiful photographs.
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