Norfolk Scope, the multi-function complex in Norfolk, Virginia, spreads out ahead of you. Its centerpiece is the 11,000-seat Scope Arena, flanked by Chrysler Hall, a 2,500-seat theater, a 65,000-square-foot modular exhibition hall and a 600-car parking garage. The arena’s daring reinforced concrete dome came from Italian architect-engineer Pier Luigi Nervi in conjunction with the local firm Williams and Tazewell, which designed the entire complex.
Nervi adapted ideas from his PalaLottomatica and the smaller Palazzetto dello Sport, both built in the 1950s for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Construction began here in June 1968 on the northern perimeter of Norfolk’s downtown and finished in 1971 at a cost of $35 million, $23 million of which came from federal funds. When it opened formally on November 12, 1971, this was the second-largest public complex in Virginia, behind only the Pentagon.
For years it featured the world’s largest reinforced thinshell concrete dome, briefly eclipsed by the Seattle Kingdome from 1976 to 2000. In recognition of its endurance, Scope won the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects Test of Time award in 2003. Your eyes can travel from the dome down across the plaza.