Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Assembly Hall [PAGE 13]

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the sides, back, and ceiling of the stage as well as a similar surface that will jut from the proscenium arch out over the first rows of seats like a giant modern canopy. When the draperies, sets, and stage are taken out, the Assembly Hall can be set up for basketball. Some 225 panels of the sectional floor will be put into place. Stanchions for backstops will be placed in floor inserts visible at the north and south ends of the floor. The four-sided scoreboard will be winched into position under the high grid. If the floor is to be used for traveling arena shows, it would be cleared of the basketball equipment so the show could use the clear floor area or add to it such special show facilities as an ice rink, swimming or diving tanks, aerial rigging or huge rubber floor mats. For exhibit purposes, the central floor, as well as the Upper Concourse, can be filled with individual tables or booths for display purposes. This will be the case for the Junior Academy of Science in May, for example. Large Seating Capacity . . . The Assembly Hall's fixed seating plus the special spaces for paraplegics give it a total basic seating capacity that exceeds nearly all other multi-purpose buildings in the nation, more fixed seats than at Madison Square Garden, the Los Angeles Sports Arena, or Pittsburgh Public Auditorium. Unique Theater Grid . . . Eighty-five feet above the central arena is the rectangular theater grid, a steel, cable and electronics combination unlike that of any other structure in the world. Five similar electronic grids have been built on the plan invented by Dr. George Izenour of Yale University. Only this one provides operation of battens as opposed to spot lines. Many multipurpose buildings have portable stages without grids. Many have traditional theater annexes. Only the Assembly Hall has the new combination

of a portable stage and p University Pioneer . • . T nois is the first among the build a multi-purpose buil leges and universities utilize houses for several purposes. is the first of its class amoi will not be alone long, 1: other universities now are p ilar structures. Largest Dome . . . Its 400-f Assembly Hall the world's dome. Among the close Pittsburgh Public Auditori all exterior diameter of 41 alone is about 340 feet. Reverse Thrust . . . Engir versal of the Assembly I and outward thrust. This of the dome to its edge, \ tion would have transmits via a wall or a flying butti the Assembly Hall dome ai under great tension. This ward thrust and redirect goes through the buttresse concrete ring footing belov Post-Tensioning L i f t . . . A of highest quality steel win of the Assembly Hall was device which previously h similar wire to missile lau sion of the wire squeeze* 2 inches, reducing its dia also caused the apogee of than 2 inches. The combir wire caused the building t scaffolding and become an ing on its own.