CHARLOTTE COLISEUM
Charlotte, North Carolina
Located south of uptown Charlotte at 100 Paul Buck Blvd., the Charlotte Coliseum was built primarily for the Charlotte Hornets but is also frequently used for concerts and other large events. O'Dell Associates, Inc. provided the architectural services for the Coliseum design and worked with Geiger Engineers, structural engineers, to complete the project in 1988. The Coliseum has a maximum seating capacity of 23,771.
The Coliseum's foundation is made up of drilled caissons with an average depth of 50' to 60'. The seating for the structure consists of a lower seating bowl, half of which rests on grade with the other half elevated structural steel. The entire upper seating bowl was constructed of structural steel. The maximum depth of the roof trusses supporting the domed roof is 35', with maximum spans of 375'.
The Charlotte Coliseum was designed with many uses and loading cases in mind. Concerts often introduce large point loads when speakers and lighting equipment is hung from the roof trusses. To account for this, the trusses were designed as a spatial truss system rather than one-way system, allowing these heavy loads to be disbursed efficiently. This practice also allowed the engineers to reduce the amount of steel necessary to support the loads.
Another unique feature of the Charlotte Coliseum is the lack of expansion joints in the roof system. Typically, expansion joints are used to allow the roof to expand and contract due to temperature changes, but to achieve the spatial trusses action, the roof was required to act together as one large plate. The roof was supported around the perimeter by A-frame columns that were designed to pivot to allow movement. These A-frames were located in the plane of the exterior wall and were design to carry all lateral load experienced by the structure (i.e. wind, seismic and roof expansion).