Made from the Remnants of the Hoosier Dome.

Community Fiberglass: A public shade structure is made from the remnants of the Hoosier Dome

June 2011 - Shortly after the collapse of the Metrodome roof in December, Indianapolis officials told their Minneapolis counterparts that they could take roofing material from the old Hoosier Dome to complete a patch job. The Hoosier Dome, more recently dubbed the RCA Dome, had been demolished in late 2008 to make way for an expanded convention center.

Yet the city wouldn’t have had any Teflon-coated fiberglass to loan, however theoretically, were it not for People for Urban Progress (PUP). The local nonprofit worked directly with Sabre Demolition to salvage the Hoosier roof, and successfully campaigned the Indianapolis Parks Department to transport and store eight acres of that surface. Another five acres was donated to the group Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, which roofed a high school with the material. In total, 90 percent of the Hoosier Dome’s dome, weighing 225 tons, was saved.

PUP has used part of its share of the stadium’s fiberglass shell to convert into wallets and handbags for fundraising for a larger goal: With the bulk of the former roof, it is working with the year-old local architecture and urban design studio w/purpose to create recycled pavilions and shade structures throughout Indianapolis.

PUP and w/purpose began exploring this outcome last year, as part of Park(ing) Day. For the event, dedicated to public green space and organized by the Indianapolis chapter of Architecture for Humanity, PUP transformed eight rented parking spaces into an urban garden. A w/purpose-designed shade structure stood at its center. {read more}