The JS Dorton Arena, originally designed as a livestock judging pavilion for the North Carolina fairgrounds, was a deliberate political statement for the North Carolina State University about the courage of progress and value of taking risks. The architect, Matthew Nowicki, imagined a symphonic spatial experience where design, material and construction are choreographed in a highly challenging and sweeping, ambitious vision. Foregoing interior columns, the building combines intersecting parabolic arches of reinforced concrete with a grid of draped tension cables inspired by the tension system of the Golden Gate Bridge to support the entire span of the roof - the first of its kind.
Reflecting the optimism and openness of post the World War II world, Nowicki designed the Dorton Arena along Modernist principles, creating a public space that was dynamic, formally innovative, functionally adaptable and technically groundbreaking. Dr. Wayne Place, professor of Architecture in the College of Design, explains, "We could learn a lesson from this building about what enthusiasm and optimism can do when people really embrace it."
