The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome has been in use for a quarter century. Although designed by a well-known modernist firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago, the Metrodome has received little architectural recognition. Yet the structure is remarkable in its service to the community as home to two major league teams and a Big Ten college football team; in hosting significant professional sporting events like the World Series, the Super Bowl, and the NCAA Men's basketball Final Four; and in providing space for community activities, concerts, and religious gatherings. It is used throughout the year, with events scheduled in the building nearly every day. In an era when stadium funding has become a financial burden in many cities, the Metrodome has been an economic success. Even with its diverse use and financial success, however, the Metrodome has failed to gain much affection from its community or its tenants. This dissertation considers the background of sports venues in the Twin Cities area, from the first professional facilities in the late nineteenth century through the decade-long struggle in the 1970s to replace Bloomington's Metropolitan Stadium with a domed stadium in downtown Minneapolis. It examines the Metrodome's place in the context of national trends in stadium design, and it considers the process of the facility's design and construction. The study concludes with an investigation of the Metrodome's tenants and their varied uses of this multipurpose space. The facility's operations are largely funded by the principal tenants, but as the Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota build new facilities, and with the end of the Minnesota Vikings' lease in 2011, the fate of the Metrodome and its role as "Minnesota's Rec Room" remain uncertain.