Culture
What Can You Build With a Dismantled Stadium?
In Indianapolis, a nonprofit is turning the Colts’ old stomping ground into shade shelters, wallets, and more.
When Michael Bricker asked if he could have the fabric from the roof of the RCA/Hoosier Dome stadium, people cocked their heads. It was 2008. The Indianapolis Colts were gearing up to move to their new home at Lucas Oil Stadium; their former field was slated for demolition.
As the stadium stared down the wrecking ball, Bricker—then a newly minted architecture grad from UT Austin—realized that while there was a plan to strip, harvest, or dispose of some of the concrete, electrical, and metal elements, the roof risked missing out on the chance for a second life. He thought it was a valuable resource, and a public one. Taxpayer dollars had been funneled into the stadium, he says; this material belonged back in citizens’ hands.