The Kibbie Dome is the University of Idaho’s covered stadium/arena most notably housing home games for the Vandals football team. The Dome was designed by Boise architect Glen Cline and built in 1972-73. In order to carry out the unique Dome design that would cover a 400 foot span, Cline decided to employ the ideas and engineering of known architect Art Troutner’s company Trust Joist International. Since becoming known for his progressive modern architectural designs of residential homes in Idaho in the 1950s, Troutner had spend the previous 10 years developing a new trust product using laminated wood chips called micro-lam. The Society of Architectural Historians page on the Kibbie Dome has this description: “By 1972, the Truss Joist Corporation was a rapidly growing firm known for its wood products, particularly a new wood product called micro-lam. Although it had been thirteen years since Troutner had taken on a client for architectural work, he agreed to the challenge. The resulting design featured a truss system using micro-lam as the top and bottom cord elements laced together with thousands of tube steel web members. The micro-lam arrived from the factory in 24-inch-wide billets each 40 feet long. The steel web members then created a truss system 7.5 feet deep that spanned the 400-foot arena. This structure was the second generation of the original product that spawned the truss-joist product; the original truss-deck system was just 8 inches deep (introduced in Troutner’s Phillips House), while this new version was 7.5 feet deep and took a curved, rather than flat, shape.”
While Cline’s design created the idea of the Kibbie Dome, it was Troutner’s micro-lam product that made it possible to build. When it was finished in 1975, the Kibbie Dome was the longest wood roof span in the world!
Sources: https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/ID-01-057-0034, picture source Michael Snow