Quotulatiousness

December 27, 2013

The Metrodome had “a retro-futuristic feel that was equal parts Jetsons and Lite-Brite”

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:56

This Sunday, the final game will be played in Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. ESPN‘s Kevin Seifert looks at some of the oddities of the soon-to-be demolished stadium:

They played two World Series in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and the same number of Final Fours. Baseball’s All-Star Game, the Super Bowl, Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney all made appearances, as well. And yet, from a national perspective, the dominant memory might well have originated on Dec. 12, 2010 — when the roof collapsed a day before a Minnesota Vikings game.

The Teflon-coated roof was one of many engineering quirks that gave the Metrodome a retro-futuristic feel that was equal parts Jetsons and Lite-Brite. My personal favorite was the strict rule against opening any set of double doors at the same time, a fail-safe against altering the air pressure setting that maintained the roof’s shape.

That rule was one of many improvised plans that stadium engineers developed and followed to maintain a building that will host its final event Sunday. And it’s why Steve Maki and six colleagues found themselves on the roof with fire hoses and a steam connection in the hours before the 2010 collapse.

We’ll get back to that incredible instance of homespun maintenance in a moment. First, it’s important to know a few facts about the roof.

The original design called for 20 fans of 90-horsepower apiece to maintain inflation from their position at the top of the stadium. Because it was used in a region that receives about 50 inches of snow per year, a system was installed to melt snow accumulation on the roof by shooting hot air between two layers of fabric on the surface.

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