Cotton Bowl
Dallas, Texas

Architects:
Mark Lemmon
George Dahl (1936 Renovation)
HOK Architects (1993 Addition)

Frank Chappell, the founder of Datum Engineers, Inc. was a resident engineer for construction of Fair Park in the 1930’s and always reminisced about the great Texas Centennial Celebration at Fair Park in 1936. He said Fair Park was built for a spectacular celebration.

In 1944, as Mr. Chappell thought he saw the end of World War II on the horizon and the soldiers coming home, he was instrumental in promoting expanding the Cotton Bowl from a 50,000 seat bowl to a 75,000 seat structure. Doak Walker, SMU football and the end of the war led to the construction in 1949 of the present Cotton Bowl under the direction of our predecessor as the prime design firm. 

Of all the wonderful projects Mr. Chappell was involved in, he always loved Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl and the New Years Day Cotton Bowl Classic the most. But, in the 1960’s he was worried about the lack of available funds to maintain Fair Park and the resulting deterioration that was occurring. He was concerned that Fair Park would deteriorate beyond a point of no return.

However, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, the civic leaders and public officials of our city had a renewed resolve to bring Fair Park back to life. Progress has been great.

New buildings have been constructed and many of the original buildings have been and are in the process of being totally restored. Fair Park has new and exciting life!

The structure of the Cotton Bowl is exposed to the deteriorating effects of the weather and such a structure requires more attention in the form of costly maintenance than an enclosed buildings. Additionally, the annual New Year’s Day Cotton Bowl Classic won’t be considered for a Tier I Bowl event due to the unpredictable weather on January 1st. Basically, as I understand it, national television doesn’t want to chance having another “ice bowl” with empty stands as a prime time game.

In 1995, Darrell Jordan formed the Cotton Dome Foundation to expand the Cotton Bowl to 85,000 seats and dome the Cotton Bowl. The dome would protect the structure from the weather and create the largest indoor heated 85,000 seat stadium in the U.S. That would surely make the Cotton Bowl a strong contender for a Tier I New Year’s game.

Since the Cotton Bowl and Fair Park are on the National Historic Register, adding a roof could be highly unacceptable if the design was not sensitive to the historic nature of the structure and the Park. Our barrel vault roof was designed unanimously approved by the Dallas Landmark Commission and the State Historical Society.

When Dallas voted to compete for the 2012 Olympics, we realized the Cotton Bowl would have to be an open air stadium to hold the track and field events. One option would be to modify the stadium for the Olympic events and delay doming the stadium until after the Olympics. But, the goal to bring Tier I games to the Cotton Bowl Classic is still an urgent goal.

A retractable dome would solve both issues and probably in a much better way. A retractable roof would provide an open air venue for the Olympics and at the same time allow an open air Cotton Bowl Classic on those beautiful 70 sunny New Year’s days that we often have or a domed stadium if weather dictates.

This flexibility would also be very appealing to other prospective stadium events throughout the year.

The next step was to find an economical design solution for a retractable roof that would also retain the historical approved barrel vault concept. I believe our concept is both economical and is the most sensitive to Fair Park than all other schemes we considered.