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Show The design contract was awarded to Young and Fowler, a Salt Lake architecture firm. They were to design a complex with stadium and buildings to house health and physical education and recreation classes. A single structure was considered and rejected because its size would dominate the campus. Final plans provided for a domed special events center, a natatorium, and three multipurpose buildings. The gym buildings and natatorium were sunken into the ground twelve feet to blend with nearby Ballif Hall. With a span of 350 feet, the Special Events Center is the world's largest wooden dome. Four main entrances on a perimeter concourse lead to 15,000 seats through twenty-four interior portals. One of the most outstanding features of the special events center is the echo-deadening steel and fiberglass cloud which hangs from the ceiling. It contains three rings of lights and the audio system. Suspended from it is a $35,000 four-sided Scoreboard. The cloud, along with three-inch thick panels on the ceiling, foam squares behind each seat, and an echo-killing baffle around the dome base, provide excellent a-coustics that make the arena a formidable rival to the Salt Palace. 97 |