A Soaring Project
By Neal Singer

Picture a hot-air balloon lying on its side, three-quarters inflated, and you have the concept of the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum.

Designed by balloonist and architect Mark Schiff of Design Collaborative Southwest Inc. and built by Albuquerque-based general contractor Gerald

Martin, the 63,000-sq.-ft. steel-framed facility is being built in Albuquerque just south of the city's balloon field. The city is famous every fall for the huge number of balloons ascending from it.

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To be structurally completed in November at a cost of $10.4 million, the structure is arguably the most unusual shape in Albuquerque, a city known for its cinderblock walls and flat roofs, said Jim Roupas, project manager.

"It's the only one of its kind there'll ever be," Roupas added

The main entrance at the building's southern side presents a 20-ft.-high semi-cylindrical entry way that opens, much like an inflating balloon, into an 80-ft.-high, semi-cylindrical interior, said site manager Gary Barteaux.

Supported by wires and struts reminiscent of an airplane hangar, the metalwork imitates the support structure of a hot-air balloon. The back wall - the "top" of the horizontal balloon-is entirely supported by glass, almost 80 ft. high at its peak, offering unobstructed views of balloonists to the north as their vehicles rise over the building.

Enhancing the building's balloon-like feel, the sloping roof curving upward from entrance to main room is made of a vinyl fabric that resembles balloon fabric. The fabric, called Burdair, comes with a 20-year warranty, tolerates desert sun, and is used, among other places, as roofing at Denver International Airport.

It costs $325,000 for enough fabric to cover 12,000 sq. ft. The fabric is off-white to serve as a neutral backdrop for the varicolored balloon displays expected to be inserted below.

"The whole structure - the fabric roof, the trusses and suspension-cable tensions and angular metal rods - is symbolic of ballooning," Schiff said.

Massive support pillars are tied together at their top by 70-foot.-long structural steel trusses that weigh as much as 16 tons.

George Bosiljevac, owner of Structural Services of Albuquerque, the subcontractor that secured the steel in place, said the project was unusual because of the height, and because many of the trusses were bowed.

His project manager, Lillian Santillanes, used a 125-ton crane to keep the steel members from rolling as they were secured. "It was tedious," she said.

"We fit things as we went along, securing one side down and then setting the other side."

When the city of Albuquerque was unwilling to fully fund general contractor Gerald Martin's low bid, meetings were held that brought changes that included putting on hold a proposed pond and altering certain glazings and R-values. A self-supporting 80-ft.-high glass wall became glass windows supported by steel framing.

"The original window wall was tensioned under cables and was architecturally a wonder," said Matthew Martin, president of Gerald Martin. "What we have now is beautiful, maintains the aesthetics and is within budget."

Each side of the cylindrical entrance is protected by windowless flat walls 2.5 stories high that extend east and west. The size of the walls is diminished through the use of colored, patterned cinderblock provided by Rinker Materials of Bernalillo, and several colors of mortar. Buckskin-colored sandstone will be used for niche decoration and as a possible site for the names of contributors.

A restaurant will function in its own rotunda beneath a separate roof that itself is a 52-ft.- dia. aluminum dome meant to remind viewers of balloons.

Second-floor parapets for viewing are at the front of the northern end of the building and serve as a partial roof for the first floor. The 8-in. thick concrete parapets were waterproofed and then strengthened by 5 in. of additional concrete. Hazards from potential falls are reduced by horizontal rows of cylindrical stainless steel hand railings.

A standing-seam metal roof of extruded roof panels covers the most high-profile part of the roof - the semicylinder above the main hall.

Tim Medina of Commercial Roofing Systems of Albuquerque said his company installed 5-in. thick insulation and 24-gauge copper-metallic roofing strips fabricated by Sun Metal of Albuquerque.

Fifty-four strips-131 ft. by 18 in. were assembled in three hours, using clips and batten stripping.

The less visible, flatter roof over offices and storage is covered by a thermoplastic overlay.

The structure's four separate roofs top a 40-ft. change in building elevation that rewards observation from different angles. From the north, the balloon motif is less evident and the semicylindrical roof seems to float above the world like a paraglider, with the restaurant dome its exotic companion.

Funding for the building came from a quarter-cent quality-of-life tax, city bonds, state funding and private corporations, said Louis Abruzzo, a vice-president of the Anderson/Abruzzo Balloon Foundation.

"We call ourselves the 'balloon capitol of the world,' and we go gangbusters for 11 days [each fall during the balloon fiesta]," Abruzzo added. "We need to draw people in the rest of the year as well."

He's hoping this unique building will help.

>A Soaring Project
>Flowing with the Albuquerque Museum Addition
>Art for the Masses in a Massive Project