Multicolored fabric forms help create eclectic gathering space

FabriTec Structures | Costa Mesa, Calif., United States

Grier Pavilion, Riverside, Calif., which won an Outstanding Achievement Award in the tensile structures, under 6,000 sq. ft. category of the 2008 International Achievement Awards, is dedicated to the diversity of the people who have, are currently, and will in the future embody the spirit of Riverside, Calif. The formal elements within the space complement the “Festival of Lights” with multicolored fabric forms and interactive information displays. The project’s intent was to create an eclectic gathering space for international visitors to the city and provide an identity for an outdoor pavilion area on the seventh floor of City Hall, while also helping to minimize the impact and visual eyesore of a not-integrated steel structure that originally covered the existing roof. The most difficult challenge was coordinating the emotions and visual hopes of all involved. This challenge was compounded by the layout of existing steel members interrelated to the size and span of tensioned fabric sails, along with their cables/membrane plates/attachment components and the engineering of the loads required for the acceptable design of very simple, yet elegant, PVC sails.