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Master Plan for the South Pole Redevelopment Project2. Background Since 1957, the United States of America has continuously maintained and operated a scientific research station at the geographic South Pole. The first station was a construction of temporary wood and canvas buildings built directly on the snow’s surface. The station was expanded and these structures were eventually replaced with panelized buildings and corrugated steel arches over a period of several years until an entirely new station was constructed in the 1970’s. At the time it was decommissioned, the snow surface was at least eight meters above the roofs of the buildings and structural failure was occurring in their timber construction. The 1975 station was built approximately 880 meters grid N.N.W. away from the functioning station. It was designed by the US Navy’s Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC). The design’s principal components were six, corrugated steel “wonder arches,” a 51-meter (165-foot) diameter aluminum geodesic dome, a four-story observatory tower and a balloon inflation tower. The arch structures acted as a protective shell over infrastructure facilities such as fuel storage, cargo storage, maintenance shops, power generators, a recreation facility, and medical laboratory. The dome sheltered the station’s primary habitat of three major modular type buildings used for science laboratories, administrative offices, dining, food preparation, and berthing. This station was conceived, designed and constructed as a permanent installation with a fifteen-to twenty-year life cycle. Although it was considerably larger in area than its predecessor, it was designed for the same complement of 20 to 33 scientists and support staff. The buildings were still founded on the snow’s surface and needed continued snow removal operations to keep them operational and structurally sound.
In 1991 NSF commissioned PACDIV, the Navy’s Pacific Division of NAVFAC, to proceed with advertising for and procurement of architectural and engineering services for a major redevelopment of the station. The conceptual design directives for the project were stated as follows:
In 1992, Ferraro Choi And Associates Ltd. was selected by PACDIV to initiate architectural programming and engineering studies together with their consultant team of Metcalf & Eddy (M&E) and Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin (RWDI). M&E’s work included all building engineering as well as ice mechanics, waste management, and alternative-power-systems analysis and design. RWDI’s snow studies would guide the design team in a conceptual design building shape that would minimize snowdrift accumulation on and around the buildings. Since snowmelt does not occur at the site, snow accumulation has a dynamic impact on the station, diverting valuable energy and resources to its management since it can cause serious egress and structural problems. As prime design contractor, Ferraro Choi’s responsibility was the coordination of the design team and the architectural programming and planning of the project. Proceed to next section: 3. Design Process: 3.1 Information Gathering Table of Contents Return to Publications
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By 1991, this second station had reached its design life. In addition to structural problems developing in the dome, its buildings and utilities, the station had reached functional inadequacy. The dynamics of polar research had changed so that the requirements for scientific programs were no longer the same as they were twenty years before. The program for polar research had also grown. The austral summer station staffing had reached 150, or five times the station’s design capacity. The maintenance and logistical support needed to keep the aging station in operation was impacting resources needed for science. The station’s modular buildings were not designed to meet current construction and life safety codes causing a risk to the station and its personnel. Annexes were built to the station consisting of a summer camp of canvas “Jamesway” structures and remote science buildings for astronomy and clean air sampling which strained the basic infrastructure. Supplies were being staged and stored, exposed to the elements, on exterior “cargo berms” stretching hundreds of yards from the station.