Yellow Bus Garage

SZ 1094 BOURNEMOUTH MALLARD ROAD (South east side) 768/38/10054 Yellow Bus Garage

17.8.99 II

Bus garage, originally also for trolleybuses. 1950-1 by Jackson and Greenen for Bournemouth Corporation; Alfred Goldstein, consultant structural engineer. Brick walls. The roof is a reinforced concrete thin shell made up of nine cylindrical vaults 21h inches thick and integral edge beams at the valleys, set horizontally across the space; the whole roof of beams and shells was post-tensioned by prestressing cables in the beams, Magnel-Blaton system of post-tensioning. Each shell has a radius of 22ft 10in, and a span of 33ft. Clear span shed of 300ft by 150ft, with narrow lower spine of single-storey offices to south and still smaller offices within building on north side.. Elevations of two-tone brick with projecting headers relieved by double folding timber doors to front and back, with pairs of notches over for the trolleybus wires to run through and unbonded brickwork forming patterned panels of contrasting brick to either side. Wavy concrete canopy on left return reflects the form of the roof above, whose curved shells are clearly visible above the clerestory glazing. Unbonded brick panels below, like the projecting headers, are a particularly good example of Scandinavian-inspired decoration popular at the time. Petrol pumps on north side. Adjoining wash house is concrete framed construction with brick infill and concrete roof, contemporary with the garage. When built the 1 50ft span was the largest formed by shell construction in Britain, and was the first to be post-tensioned. Its publication in 1952 led to the widespread adoption of the technique. Sources: G W Kirkland and A Goldstein, Design and Construction of a Large spa ~Prestressed Concrete Shell Roof, in The Structural Engineer, vol 29, no.4, April 1951, pp.107-26 Architects' Journal, 8 November 1951, p.552, The Builder, 14 December 1951, 825-7, The Build r, 4 November 11)53, pp.351-6.

Listing NGR: SZ1095394474