Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Assembly Hall [PAGE 10]

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The Assembly Hall — new and unusual multipurpose marvel at the University of Illinois — has attracted world-wide attention for its features of design, engineering and structure. The Assembly Hall is financed by bonds guaranteed by a student fee; no tax funds are used in its construction. Because it is a student building financed by students for student affairs, student organizations have first priority on its use. It consists of a massive concrete seat bowl on which is placed an unusual reinforced concrete roof. The building is 400 feet in diameter, and it has the world's largest edge-supported dome. There are no pillars or trusses inside. The roof averages 3.5 inches in thickness, yet gains tremendous strength from its folded-plate design, just as corrugation strengthens cardboard. There are nearly 16,000 seats, including 142 wheel chair positions. This capacity can be augmented through addition of chairs on the central floor, or it may be reduced to 4,200 seats in the theater quadrant at the west. Individual, numbered fiberglass chairs are used throughout; those in the theater quadrant also have upholstery and arm rests. Special attention is given to space and comfort. The seats were designed especially for this building. Large as the Assembly Hall's great arena seems from the top row, its efficient circular design makes the seating closer and viewing better than in any other building of comparable capacity. Placement of the central floor about 30 feet below ground level means that entrances bring the public into the Hall at points about half way up in the seat bowl, so it is an easy walk to and from seats; the highest row is only 22 rows from the entrance, rather than the 48 it would have been by standard design. A tractor with horizontal wheels came from missile silo projects to wind 614 miles of fifth-inch