This is a good post and I like the discussion, even though I don't wholly agree with you Dude -- I think the Dome still rocks and has some life in her yet.

But I just wanted to point out to the group, in this discussion, I am pretty sure that it's been talked about before; but from what I've heard, I believe it's impossible to renovate the current Dome with a retractable roof, because of the way it's designed, and the weight, the shape and load bearing of the sides or walls....it couldn't be done with the structure that's there....I think I heard this years ago from one of the old architects at Curtis & Davis. From what I understand, it would have to basically be a whole new structure (whole new sides and walls) on the same site, if you wanted to do a retractable roof. It's an engineering thing.

What would be pretty cool is if they would build a new dome on the same spot with al the modern hoopla and a retractable roof that still looks like the old dome.

Domes do not have retractable roofs, those are stadiums, a dome doesn't leave you with a place for the roof to retract to, unless it functions like a camera shutter and that would be expensive as hell, along with being an architectural feat to make it withstand hurricanes.

Like this?