A roof that floats in the sky
5:00PM
$35 per person
This event is part of a series.
Click here to find out more.
Thomas Jefferson School
4100 South Lindbergh
Sappington, 63127
zstovall@stlbeacon.org
(314) 649-7852

It’s one of engineering’s most graceful and sturdy systems – the Lamella Roof. In 1928, architect Gustel R. Kiewitt designed a huge show barn for St. Louis, one big enough to accommodate the annual National Dairy Show. Kiewitt’s design specified an engineering marvel, the Lamella roof, a system that fitted together wooden ribs in a fish-scale pattern supported by cantilevered trusses, creating a clear span 476 feet long and 276 feet wide. That barn became the beloved, destroyed St. Louis Arena. We’ll meet at the Thomas Jefferson School in Sunset Hills, which has its own Lamella roof, to hear an engineering professor discuss the roof system, with observations and memorabilia presented by Kiewitt’s daughter, Kitty Mollman. Co-sponsored by Thomas Jefferson School, whose chef is preparing a reception following the talks.
The lecture and reception begin at 5 p.m. in the school’s gymnasium, which was designed by the celebrated St. Louis architect, William Adair Bernoudy. A reception follows.
The third Beacon Festival bursts forth from its previous one-week bounds to shower you with a month’s worth of picnics, dinners, lectures, gospel music and lunch music, tours, readings, acrobatics, vaudeville, dancing dogs, Lamella roofs and Victorian funerary art, a party with the composer and the stars of a brand new opera and a trip back 160 years for a re-examination of the Dred Scott Case, presented at the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.
Browse through and choose the events you want to attend. You can designate your choices online or by mail. Whichever way you choose, you’re walking through a magic portal to the promise of a cultural adventure that is the Beacon Festival.
All tickets are first come, first served. There are no refunds.
