The idea of a building like the Astrodome once seemed as foreign as sending a man to the moon. But when Major League Baseball awarded an expansion franchise to Houston in 1960, a band of visionaries united to construct an never-before-seen structure dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
In the new Fox Nation series "American Built," Fox News host Steeve Doocy explores the vision, design, and ingenuity behind five extraordinary projects that capture the American spirit.
In the episode "American Built: Astrodome," Doocy sits down with renowned architects, engineers, and historians who explore how the first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium came to be
Conceived by Roy Hofheinz, a former Harris County judge and mayor of Houston, and built by architects Hermon Lloyd and W.B. Morgan, the Astrodome opened on April 9, 1965. It hosted the club until 1999, and housed the NFL's Houston Oilers from 1968 until their departure following the 1996 campaign. It also was the home of the University of Houston's college football team from 1965 to 1997.
The Astrodome opened for the 1965 baseball season and hosted its last major event in 2002. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
When plans for the building were unveiled, one expert told Doocy "a lot of [people] looked in awe and were amazed by it, but in the back of their minds it was like, 'How is it gonna be when you actually put 48,000 people in the building?'"
Given the large capacity of the building, as well as Houston's hot and humid climate, air conditioning was a necessity -- but nobody had ever installed a system that could cool a 42 million cubic-square-foot space. The engineers managed to come up with a revolutionary concept to properly cool the massive space, making the Astrodome the world's first air-conditioned indoor stadium.
But Hofheinz was later faced with another obstacle. With a $35 million price tag, the dome had to host more than baseball games. It had to be equally hospitable to football and other sports as well.
"The solution? Two movable field stand sections revolved to change the diamond into a rectangle," Doocy explained. "Field conversion is what made it possible to have a baseball game there in the afternoon, and then a football game there at night."
For a deeper look at the history and ingenuity behind some of American's most famous structures, join Fox Nation and watch "American Built" hosted by Steve Doocy today.
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