Geometry of the Building

Because we wanted Neskaya to be “Sacred Space” the design of the building is unusual. It was designed by Dana Johnson who also designs and builds musical instruments. The basic floor plan came from a clever way to turn a regular polygon with twelve sides into an eight-sided polygon that is not a regular octagon. The first and third sides were extended to a point outside the second side, similarly with the fourth and sixth sides.

The roof is made up of four hyperbolic paraboloids. Each is a compound curved rectangular shape. The highest corners meet at the center, the lowest rest on the four outside points, creating an arched roof.

The other corners meet in two ridge lines which point to the cardinal directions. This picture shows the roof pointing to Ore Hill in the west.

The building is entered from the west. On the east side is a large round annex which contains the restrooms, shower rooms, and utility rooms. On the north and south sides are smaller round extensions which get used for various projects.

The dance floor is centered in the building. It is twelve-sided, except that two of the sides are cut off by the east wall, which is very big and is used to display seasonal decorations and can also be used as a projection screen.