Shaggy Rug Story Again the Answer Was Paint - This Time Green Pigment Sprayed on the Brown Sod
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HI Cite Spring 1990 high flies, but ihe reduced solar levels were not enough to keep the grass healthy. Once Shaggy Rug Story again the answer was paint - this time green pigment sprayed on the brown sod. lion aboul what else it might have been. The Greening of When il was clear that the grass was dying, While the Dome was still being designed. the Astros were prepared to play their Hofheinz nil on the idea of making the the Astrodome second season, like the mosi deprived of place double as the world's largesi fall- sandlotters. on an all-dirt field. out shelter - perhaps fulfilling one of Barthe.s's criteria through a uselessness of Before this unappealing action was taken, intentions. Hofbeinz's motives were more however. Judge Hofheinz heard of an a matter of opportunism than anylhing Certainly no one could accuse the experimental synthetic "grass" that might else, an attempt to gather eight million Astrodome's sponsors and designers of be used as a carpet for his now-shabby federal dollars into his project through the thinking small. They knew lhai building palace floor. The Monsanto Chemical even-then-vestigial Civil Defense pro- ihe world's first indoor stadium large Company installed roughly 100,000 square gram. The idea prompted the digging of enough for baseball and football was a feet of ils evergreen flooring and named il an oversized basement level before it was venture that, if successful, would make ils in the Dome's honor. Thus was Asiroiurl quashed, apparently by functionaries in mark on both sports. Yet I wonder if even baptised under crisis conditions. Being the Kennedy administration seeking to put the most self-confidenl of these people synthetic, il could noi die: being integrally I.BJ in his place.1 Judge Hofheinz, who (the leading candidate for lhal honor colored, it slaved green. It needed no water, built a Ittuin apartment fur himsell that being Judge Roy Hofheinz himself) ever and since it did not engage in transpiration, included a barber and beauty shop, a dreamed that this it reduced the dehumidification demands medieval chapel, and a circus room be- structure would on the air-conditioning system. hind the right-field wall, prompted become ihe most University of Houston student David influential stadium Il would be nice to say that this miracle Bucek to create a design thai relined the of its century, and material ended the woes of indoor base- Dome as a mixed-use development for perhaps even of all ball in Houston, but it merely substiiuled allergy sufferers, answering the question time. The simple fact new ones and eventually spread them of what to do with the Dome when the is that the Astrodome throughout much of the sporting universe. fans slop coming to watch another season Itered the way Sladiums that did not otherwise need il of the local also-rans. America's most pop- installed Astroturf or 3M's Tartan Turf to ular outdoor sports simplify maintenance or to promote the would be played; it faster game that the speedy surface The Dome presented itself on opening %£f- did so dramatically, allowed. When used outdoors, it proved a day in 1965 as an object of self-induced perhaps irrevocably, fine solar heating device, producing field adoration, manifolded through expansive and entirely through temperatures as high as [30 degrees. figures of speech. Twenty-five years have miscalculation. Because it was not as resilient as grass, it made it a more comfortable object. Per- increased player fatigue and wear on leg haps still a renegade building, it none- joints. Because il did noi give way like theless fits comfortably into ihe Houston The Astrodome's grass, it increased the frequency and scheme. Coming as close to being a main significance lies severity of knee injuries associated with symbolic, public place as Houston can not in ils volume, twisting and sudden slops. And, of course, manage, il draws the transportable center span, air-condilion- there was a major element of aesthetic of the city southward. ng prowess, or immense skylight. offensiveness to fans and players brought up on the real thing. Outfielder Dick Whether it's ihe Oilers or ihe Astros, but in ils plastic floor covering. Astroturf is Allen summed up all these objections by the rodeo or Ihe Rolling Stones, they're declaring, "If a horse won't eat il. 1 don't playing in the big urban room. Or the ihe end result of a i i,i succession of archi- want to play on it." Alas, such sentiments Guru Maharaj Ji. who once played the Sweeping changes at the last have carried little weight with decision Dome and tried to raise its roof with moment, 18 April 1 9 6 6 . tecturally created problems, and is ilself an expedient rather than a true solution. makers in sports, and artificial turf has collective meditation, without result. He become entrenched. The new Toronto pul it in a more spiritual metaphor: "The The Dome was meani to he a great conser- vatory, with several acres of God's green Skydome, for example, has an openable Astrodome is like God. You have to roof thai would allow real grass to grow, experience them both first hand.'i grass growing under its clear Lucite roof. Its hothouse (or more accurately, cool- but il uses plastic nonetheless. Null--. house) ecology was diligently calculated, and, since the Dome's Tifway 419 Beyond Astroturf, ihe Dome's design had I I-.II:.MI W. Ray. The Gra/ul Huckster (Memphis: Bermuda grass was bred at Texas A&M Memphis Slate University Press, 19X0). Ray's h<ii»k other implications for Houslon baseball is the most extensive study of ihe building of the specifically for indoor use, there was no and football. Its round shape was an awk- Dome and was an invaluable source for this article. doubt that photosynthesis would occur to ward compromise between ideal sealing 2 raienne-Louis Boullee. "Architecture, lissay on An," the required degree. What no one studied patterns for the two very different games, in Helen Rouscnnu, Boullee anil Visionary Arehitte- was the optical qualities of the roof and, although movable sealing sections lure (London: Academy Press. Isifi7i. p, 94. Building lay-up (top) and structure and the visual needs of fielders rectified the problem for patrons in the firsi .1 Philip Bess, City Baseball Magic: Plain Talk ami building layouts (below), Uncommon Sense About Cities ami Baseball Parks faced with ihe i;i\k ol accurate!) tracking few rows, most of ihe seals remained too Ben Nicholson and Mark (Minneapolis Review ..I Baseball. I'WJ). p. 5. This a white ball less than three inches in far from ihe action of either sport. Utile publication offers an incisive critique of the Schneider with students diameter at distances as great as 400 feet modern baseball stadium and a plowing eulogy for of the University of and speeds as high as 120 miles per hour. Ihe traditional urban ball park. In the final chapter Houston College of For baseball, the Dome's dimensions were the author proposes a new design for Armour Field, a Architecture, 1986. generous enough to make hitting difficult. new ball park for the Faced with such a demanding task, ball- The painted roof produced dark day Chicago While Sox that players found that they could not consis- games. And by keeping temperatures in seeks to re-create the intimacy and ambience tently follow the ball's flight againsi the the low 70s, the efficient air-conditioning of the early generation contrasly and visually busy backdrop of system cut down on ihe distance lhal fly of urban ball paries. the Astrodome roof. The structural system balls carried. In combination, these three •J Roland Harthes, The for this revolutionary building was highly factors created the best pitching and worst Eiffel Tower ami Other conventional and perhaps even retrograde: hitting environmenl in the major leagues, Mythologies (New York: Hill and Wang. W J ) . heavy radial ribs of steel formed eight suppressing scoring by 11 percent and p. 5. main segments that were in turn subdivid- home runs by 38 percent from expected S Ray, The Grand ed structurally by girts and purlins, then levels over the Dome's first 24 seasons. 11 in kster. p. 273. by the mullions and muntins for the 4.596 While one may argue thai this produced a Lucite panels. The resulting pattern was subller brand of play, ihe fact remains thai not homogeneous but rather marked by most fans consider low-offense ball games light and dark areas thai made fielding boring. Furthermore, the performance conditions impossible. Writing years later, distortions created by the park have made journalist Lowell Reidenbaugh referred it difficult to appreciate the accomplish- to this oversight as a "glaring fault." ments of Astros hatters, or to compare their productivity to lhal of competitors playing Ironically, a more suitable structural in more conventional home parks. In system had been demonstrated seven recent years ihe outfield dimensions have years earlier just 250 miles away in Baion been shortened a bit. but the Dome still Rouge, where Buckminster Fuller had im- remains a pitcher's park. plemented his lightweight geodesic dome system at the Union Tank Car Company Conceived as an engineering marvel, the repair shops. In addition to saving money Astrodome is a mechanical artifact rather and materials, its uniform pattern of thin than a complete work of architecture. It tubing would almost surely have allowed sits isolated in ils vast parking lol like a normal fielding. grounded UFO, encapsulating an unques- tioning faith in technology as both means Bui in the non-Dymaxion world of the and end, and in the primacy of self- Astrodome, il was too late for basic struc- sufftcienl objects over any relationship tural thinking.