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Building the SKYDOME

Thanks for the video.

What was on that land before the SkyDome?
 
That's a really nice video.

If the video wasn't official, then whoever took it must have held a lot of power. I mean, who was allowed to run around the SkyDome construction site (and climb on top of the retractable roof) with a home video camera (must have been a bit bigger than the ones today) unopposed?
 
Thanks for the video! I remember looking down on the SkyDome construction site from the CN Tower as a kid.
 
What was on that land before the SkyDome?
It was part of the massive "railway lands" that existed south of Front St at the time.
 
I saw the first SkyDome concert in 1989 - Rod Stewart.

I've never been back.
 
This thread got me to thinking.............for those old enough to remember; my question is this: Does anybody remember the design comp. they held for the "domed stadium" design back in the "80's", or even better a link to that info.......from what i remember there were some really amazing concepts for the stadium................any help, much thanks.
 
I do remember the design competition...I might still have the newspaper clippings believe it or not. I really liked the design by Webb Zerafa et al. It was much sleeker/streamlined and complemented the CN Tower nicely (since they had designed it as well).
 
Whatever happened to the free tickets for life that the winner of the comp got for coming up with SkyDome? Now that we've Roger'ed the place.
 
my mom used to work for a company that submitted a proposal and i remember seeing a picture of a model. it was pretty out there, kind of an up and down retractable roof with a bunch of support towers around the perimiter.
 
All those of us who were runners up in the name-the-dome competition got were crummy certificates with our names on.
 
When the Skydome was being built, the company I worked for did a lot of the testing for it. I personally performed a large number of both soil and concrete tests for it.

So I guess that if big chunks of concrete start falling off, you know who to blame!

Bill
 
Particle size distribution was one test (done by sieving the dry soil though a set of sieves of increasing fineness -- using a mechanised shaker, rather like a paint agitator -- and recording the percentage of the soil that was stopped by each sieve), and moisture content was the other (done by weighing a fresh soil sample, thoroughly drying it in an oven, and re-weighing it).

For the concrete, a set of standard cylinders were taken for each pour, and at given intervals from the pour, one of the cylinders would be put into a hydraulic press and the pressure at failure recorded, yielding a chart of strength versus cure-time.

Bill
 
On a slightly aside, though contributory note....my stepfather was (until he retired) a driver of a concrete truck....the "path" going down into the excavation of the skydome was so deep and scary that most drivers didn't want to be the first to go down....my stepdad was the first truck down and poured the first load of concrete....his name is among those written on the "wall" at Skydome for those who partipated in its construction.
 

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