City
A look back at the birth of the SkyDome
The SkyDome — or Rogers Centre as it is now officially known — is a building toward which Toronto has by now become mostly ambivalent. Although it's a central figure on the city's skyline and its most identifiable object when photographed from space (see below), the excitement the stadium once engendered passed away less than a decade after it officially opened back in June of 1989.
There are many reasons for this. Toronto it seems just wasn't quite as interested in baseball after the 1994-95 MLB strike for one. But perhaps more than that, the philosophy behind baseball stadium building shifted right about the time the Dome opened. In the years that followed, the most adored stadiums to open were throwback designs like that of Camden Yards in Baltimore. The fact that the Jays haven't (seriously) competed for a championship since their last win may or may not also contribute to the SkyDome's lack of intrigue.
And yet it's still a rather remarkable building. One of the highlights of Ryan Emond's Toronto Tempo video that earned much praised last year was the sequence that showed the stadium's roof in motion, an action seemingly built for timelapse videos, and a reminder that the Rogers Centre (I'll never get used to calling it that) is more than just a monolothic sports facility with no character. Is it the best place to watch a baseball or football game (or even a concert for that matter)? Nope. But when the roof is open and the stands are full, there's something grand about the building.
With the news of SkyDome architect Rod Robbie's death last week, I thought that a photo collection of the birth of what was arguably his most famous building (he also designed the Canadian Pavilion at Expo '67) might prove a humble tribute to the man behind the coolest roof in the world.
PHOTOS
The Railway Lands pre-SkyDome
Photo by cliffordstead
SkyDome steel work
Image via the Stadium Page
Ad for SkyDome in 1988
Almost Done. Photo via the Toronto Archives
Done! SkyDome postcard from 1990
Today
Photo by Somewhere in Toronto
Photo via the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center
Photo by Dmao11
VIDEO
Check out this timelapse of the construction of the SkyDome, which also features some awesome sequences of the first tests on the moving roof.
Discussion
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That's key. When it's empty, it's cavernous and the lack of life sort of accentuates how drab the place is. When it's full it's a decent place to watch the game.
The Jays always sell out the home opener and people always come away saying things like "that wasn't so bad"...because it isn't! It's an ugly building, sure, but we wouldn't dwell on that so much if the Jays had made the playoffs in the last 17 years.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=23E9D91818F6B947
SkyDome was perhaps the richest scam in Ontario's history. Thank you, David Peterson.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edmcaskill/6664268347/in/photostream
As a side, my uncle helped build the skydome. He said he helped weld together the roof. I always told my friends. I wonder if there were any pictures around. But he recently passed away.
But on the plus side, the SkyDome was one of the most influential modern stadia ever built. Pre-SkyDome, there were no new stadia built in downtown cores. The trend had been to construct monster facilities out in the burbs or, at best, at the fringe of the core -- think Pontiac Silverdome, the Meadowlands, all those round baseball/football stadiums in Cincinnati, DC, Pittsburgh and San Diego.... The SkyDome showed you could build a stadium as an active extension of the downtown core and then surround it not with acres of parking but with new offices and condos. There are few stadia in North America that are more urban in their location. When it opened, during the very nadir of many American cities (NYC was approaching 2000 murders a year at the time), it simply stunned the Americans because it was so opposite to what had been the predominant thinking in sports socio-economics.
So while the building may have dated quickly, the sight of all those patrons of sports and music and convention events taking transit downtown, eating downtown and shopping downtown was not lost on urban planners in other cities. Toronto has one of the healthiest downtowns in North America today - and the bland old SkyDome had something to do with that.
(PS - The interior photo above the postcard should be removed as it is from a couple years ago -- note the FieldTurf and the Jays logo).
I've always been stunned that a team playing in the hardest division in the league gets trashed so much by its own city as much as the Jays do. Playing with New York, Boston and Tampa (ALL World Series contenders) makes getting into the playoffs pretty tough for the Jays. The Leafs can shit the bed year after year and still be confident they'll have a sellout crowd with the average ticket going for triple what the Jays charge.
And nobody calls it the Rogers Centre, even employees of Rogers and The Jays. Pointing out that you refuse to call it anything but SkyDome doesn't give you any cred, it just shows that you're looking for attention. Lame.
Montrealer I take it? Maybe someone should mention the moneypit turd hanging around empty in your declining city. The Big Owe is probably the worst stadium I've ever been in. The interior is awful and it WASN'T EVEN FINISHED for the Olympics it was built for. Shitty and incompetent indeed.
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Hilarious strawman indeed. I live in Toronto. The Olympic Stadium blows. Taillibert should never have been paid for the Big O, in fact, he should have been sued for his bullsh*t roof design that didn't work. Thanks for listening, Mr. Strawman. Oh wait - I forgot: Montreal on the decline? Ha ha ha. Hilarious!
He was among the first group to be sitting in the seats while the dome opened.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Tyndall_Wright
i have an old Domer the Turtle doll and a bunch of old Skydome tee's.
thanks Dad.
One of the major problems I have with the Skydome is that the majority of seats don't face home plate, and unless you've visited any other ballpark in the US, you won't even realize how bad it is in comparison here.
The reality is that the building was designed according to a very specific set of program requirements set out by the client, the Stadium Corporation - 51% owned by the government of Ontario at the time building was built. Those program requirements mandated that the building be situated where it was on a 10.5 acre site and accommodate both major league baseball and Canadian Football. Nothing else.
In fact my father tried unsuccessfully before construction started to get the Stadium Corp, the Provincial Government and CN Rail (who owed the land) to make the site bigger, specifically so that events like the Olympics and NFL football could be accommodated. However...that was not to be and he was always disappointed that critics said that his design was foolish becasue it did not accommodate what should have been obvious - well it certainly was not becasue he did not want it to.
And no SkyDome did not cost us the 96 Olympics. As we would later find out, the members of the IOC were very open to being bribed at the time. It would have been nuts to build an 75,000+ capacity stadium on the chance that we would obtain the Olympics or maybe an NFL team. That would have been even more of an elephant than Olympic stadium in Montreal.
Is it as nice as the "retro" parks? Maybe not, but a warm Friday night, roof open, the smell of beer and hot dogs. It's still baseball and it's still magic.
The process still fascinates me today and the memories of those first sold out 6 years or so are amazing
There is a large dedication wall on the 100 level that describes the history of the site, building process, and displays some pictures and artifacts found on site (or maybe just all pictures - we only sit in the 500 now). If my memory is correct I think two people died during the building and there is a memorial to them.
When the Dome is full it is great, when it is closed and 3/5 empty it is a mausoleum, especially if the Jays are losing, and the crowd is sitting on their hands.