For the fifth straight year, the UnitedStates Open men’s final was pushed backa day, to Monday, because of weatherproblems. This tournament had its shareof interruptions — which means thechorus of complaints resumed about thelack of a roof over courts at the BillieJean King National Tennis Center.

The Australian Open has retractableroofs on two courts at Melbourne Parkand plans for a third; Centre Court atWimbledon added a retractable roof in2009; and the new Roland Garros sta-dium with a retractable roof is expectedto make its debut at the French Open in2017. But United States Tennis Associa-tion officials have said that Arthur AsheStadium, built on a swamp-like ashdump, could not absorb the weight of aroof that would cover its expanse.

How hard would it be to overcomethose obstacles? Not very, at least for thestudents at Kansas State University’sCollege of Architecture, Planning andDesign, one of the nation’s top architec-ture programs. The New York Times in-vited them to brainstorm how they mightkeep the rain out of Arthur Ashe Stadiumwithout putting too much weight on theweak soil. They were given 48 hours todo it. Here are their proposals.

Raising

A Roof:

4 Ideas

The initial idea forthe inflatable roofdesign we’re call-ing the cloudcame from theconcept of hot airballoons. Incorpo-rating lightweight,durable fabric, theroof hovers abovethe stadium andfloats whimsicallyin any directionaround the sta-dium, similar to acloud. Providingprotection fromthe elements isthe primary func-tion of the cloud;however, it alsoserves as a mes-sage board to thestadium users.

Lauren Kelly,Cierra Myers andDarius Hollwell

Air CellTechnology:The Cloud

The roof evolved out of theidea of a lightweight ten-sile structure capable ofspanning distances, withminimal additional weight,into a hybrid structure oftension and compressionwith high tensile fabric,steel cables and tubing in-spired by the mechanismsof an iris, like that of acamera. Sixteen triangularshapes rotate on individualfixed axes that open andclose. Buttresslike struc-tures surround the sta-dium, producing a clearjuxtaposition of heavycompressive elements andlight tension members thatextend into the sky.

Ethan Rhoades, AndrewHelseth, Andrew Heer-mann and Ryan Wilson

The Iris

The energy and movement of a tennis game in-spired us to create a rhythmic pattern of foldingplanes. The origamilike form adds structuralstability and provides opportunities for dynamicdisplays of light through reflection and perfora-tion. The folded planes frame the sky to the eastand west, sheltering the stadium. The form al-lows the natural beauty and light of the sky topermeate the roof through a semitranslucentplastic composite material that encloses thevoids of the folded-plane structure.

Zachary Bodine, Samantha Engle, LaurelJohnston and Richard Ouk

Folding Planes

We took inspiration from the composition of atennis racket. The geometric webbing of a racketcreates one large, uniform structural whole.This led us to creating a steel space frame, com-posed of an organic geometry that could bestretched and molded around the stadium. Theframe is clad with glass over the seats and thecourt, while being left open where it is not need-ed to aid in ventilation. We then extended ourgeometry from the space frame into the interiorof the stadium to create undulating sun shadesthat make a textural and interesting ceiling.

Chris Penland and Adam Bubak

The Space Frame

ABOVE, PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER BILYK; BELOW LEFT, PHOTO BY CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES; BELOW RIGHT, PHOTO BY BEN SOLOMON. RENDERINGS BY LAUREN KELLY, CIERRA MYERS AND DARIUS HOLLWELL

PHOTO BY BEN SOLOMON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; RENDERINGS BY ETHAN RHOADES, ANDREW HELSETH, ANDREW HEERMANN AND RYAN WILSON

PHOTO BY BEN SOLOMON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; RENDERINGS BY ZACHARY BODINE, SAMANTHA ENGLE, LAUREL JOHNSTON AND RICHARD OUK PHOTO BY BEN SOLOMON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; RENDERING BY CHRIS PENLAND AND ADAM BUBAK

D8 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

T E N N I S U . S . O P E N

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