The Superior Dome is a domed stadium on the campus of Northern Michigan University (NMU) in Marquette, Michigan, United States. It opened as the “world’s largest wooden dome” on September 14, 1991, and is home to the Northern Michigan Wildcats football, women’s lacrosse, and women’s track and field teams, the NMU Wildcat marching band, and hosts a variety of other campus and community events.
The dome is 44 m tall, has a diameter of 163 m, covers an area of 5.1 acres (21,000 m2) and has a volume of 16,135,907 cubic feet. It is a geodesic dome constructed with 781 Douglas fir beams and 174.6 km of fir decking and is designed to support snow up to 60 pounds per square foot (2.9 kPa) and withstand 80-mile-per-hour (130 km/h) winds. It has a permanent seating capacity of 8,000 people, though the building can hold as many as 16,000 people.
The construction was finished in two phases. Phase I was finished in August 1991 and included the construction of the domed complex. Phase II, completed in May 1995, added locker rooms, department offices, meeting rooms, concession areas, a retail store and other building amenities.
The State of Michigan constructed the complex as an instructional, training, competition, and multipurpose sports facility for students, faculty, athletes in training at the U.S. Olympic Education Center and the Great Lakes Sports Training Center, and area citizens.
The facility was built after the U.S. Olympics Site Selection Committee designated NMU as an Olympic Training Center. Phase two of construction to the dome added locker rooms, department offices, meeting rooms, concession areas, and a retail store. Berry Events Center (1998–1999) holds an ice arena for hockey and speed skating.
According to sah-archipedia.org; en.wikipedia.org. Source of photo: internet
