ROGERS CENTRE 20th ANNIVERSARY ALSO A MILESTONE FOR THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE DESIGN

Twenty years after the official opening, Michael Allen and Rod Robbie make an emotional return to the stadium they designed and brought to life.

Home of the original retractable roof, Rogers Centre maintains a sense of awe both during the day and at night.

Despite meticulous calculations, intricate models and firm conviction, architect Rod Robbie and engineer Michael Allen still held their breath the night they unofficially tested the roof of the future SkyDome.

“Not that they had a 100% confidence because they decided to move it at night when no one could see it,” said Allen recounting the first time they tested the lower panel of the roof to see if it would slide into place. “So at 2:00 a.m. in the morning they started to move it and they moved it mechanically…and it worked just fine. The big fear was is it going to hit something but it really worked fine.”

The next morning, commuters on the Gardiner Expressway got the shock of their life as they glimpsed what the retractable roof was capable of and how the Toronto landscape would look in the future.

After creating the initial design and spending hours turning this one-of-a-kind design from concept to reality, Robbie and Allen never wavered in their conviction that SkyDome would come to life. They worked hard to find a reason why this design would not work and when they exhausted all of their calculations, realizing that this stadium could exist as they had planned, the success of the mechanical roof test solidified the success of this project.

To bring the first retractable roof in the world to life, in the heart of downtown Toronto, Robbie and Allen embarked on this ambitious project by throwing convention to the wind. Intensely scrutinizing each step of the project, Robbie and Allen did not separate the architectural and engineering elements but viewed them as a whole.

“We set out from day one saying that we’ve got to do both parts of it at the same time,” reflected Robbie. “They’ve both got to work properly and completely. You can’t do a nice architectural thing and then the poor old engineer is struggling to try and make it stand up or work.”

This strong belief in sharing and critiquing the process in detail also extended to all of the architects and engineers who worked on this mammoth structure. Given that in the early 80’s email was unheard of and the Greyhound bus was the only method of getting drawings to the right people, maintaining these strict checks and balances took considerable time and effort but made for spectacular results.

From 1985 until 1989, the pieces of this intricate puzzle came together slowly, but in an exacting manner that enabled everyone on the 5,000 person team making it to create something magnificent. A total of 135,000 cubic metres of concrete was poured for the building of the stadium, while the roof alone needed to cover 8 acres (3.2 hectares) and ended up weighing 21.1 million pounds.

Hefty size and weight for a structure built to accommodate upwards of 55,000 people no matter the weather outside the venue. The vision for this new stadium included the notion of holding multiple types of events from live sporting contests to concerts to trade shows and festivals while also boasting a luxury hotel and gym. Add five million dollars in Canadian artwork and SkyDome truly redefined the stadium experience.

A stadium experience that Robbie and Allen wanted to be both visual and magnificently vast; a sentiment they felt equally passionate about.

“Personally, I like the concourse where you can look out and see the vista of all the people and get the overall picture of the stadium and the field…” said Allen with Robbie nodding his consent.

“I would agree with Michael that we went to a lot of trouble to make sure that when you walked in off the street you could see the whole arena…and when you go high up, and to the fifth level, it becomes a kind of magnificent space,” concluded Robbie.

Under pomp, circumstance and rainy skies, Robbie and Allen, along with all of Toronto, were able to experience that scenic vista for the first time on June 3, 1989 when SkyDome was officially opened and christened. Twenty years later they returned to throw out the first pitch as the Toronto Blue Jays prepared to face the Kansas City Royals.

Their passion and conviction about the building is as strong now as when the stadium was just drawings and calculations on paper. Robbie and Allen have maintained a solid sense of confidence about the project that made them famous throughout the world.

“I’d like to see this stadium last 200 years,” said Robbie. “That’s what I told the president when we were designing it….we designed it to last 100 years, but it will last much longer.”

Especially since new owner Rogers Communications Inc. invested not only time, resources and energy but also over $75 million dollars in upgrades throughout the stadium. A new owner, a new outlook and new name for the building injected vitality and a 21st century appeal but the vision and passion the Robbie and Allen used to create the former SkyDome still remains as prominent as ever.

“We would not have changed a thing,” Robbie said when asked if he and Allen would have done anything differently in the design and execution. “We put our heart and soul into this thing and it was a design that did all of the things we were asked to do; that’s why it’s still poignant.”

As Rogers Centre passes the milestone of celebrating its first 20 years, and as it embarks on the next 20 years, the sky is still the limit for a structure that defied expectations, set new standards and imbued the passion and confidence of its two creators.