Workers construct one segment of a thin-shell octagonal roof (top), touted in May 1958 as “a practical reality for low-budget construction.” Engineered as separate folded slabs and weighing 11 tons each, the roof's eight gables were individually precast, stacked, and placed using the lift-slab technique. Four decades later, CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION reported on a folded-plate design for sloping concrete roofs incorporating insulation panels (bottom, January 1999).