Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions Stadium design

I'm looking for designers/architects that could use timber construction for a small baseball stadium.

Would this be a viable construction material over the use of steel for such items as supporting the second level (for hospitality suites and such)?

Or does anyone know of a modern sports venue that currently utilizes large timber.

Thanks.

Hi,

Using timber for a sports stadium stand is not a good idea.

For details on how 56 people were killed by just such a stand check out :-

http://www.bantamspast.co.uk/TriumphandTragedy/May%2011%201985/11thmay1985.html

Regards

Ken Hume

Looks as if that was a horror story. However, wouldn't there be upgraded firecodes and such for a public venue.

For example, the fire in Bradford started in the wooden bleacher seats which then spread to the wooden roof.

Consider cement risers with modern plastic chair-back seats, or even aluminum bench seats that are very common in the US nowadays.

In addition, if the wood timbers just replaced the steel support structures, then the roof wouldn't be as "woody" as that in Bradford.

I guess this is part of my question: I heard that timbers that are of the size needed to support a second deck of luxury suites have a better fire rating than steel. Not being an architect, that last part might also read that steel beams of a comparable size have a lower melting point than that of timbers which at that size would take hours to burn thru enough to cause the colapse upper deck.

I hope that I'm making a clear case here for using timbers in such as way as Bradford did.

Any additional thoughts? Thanks.

Once you start getting into large multi-story structures you may come up against allowable area limitations (building code) for heavy timber construction. Also, don't want to put large timber columns in the seating area to obstruct views if there's a roof.
-Stern