Abstract: According to the requirements of construction of column-supported prestressed shallow lattice shells, a kind of laminated rubber bearings that can slide during construction stage is designed. The paper proposes a finite element model for the bearings. The analytic model is idealized to be a simple sliding contact element. For the convenience of programming of nonlinear problem, the sudden change in element stiffness is expressed by a continuous function of hyperbolic tangent. Construction analysis of an actual structure shows that the simplified element performs very well and offers good predictions.