Mercedes-Benz Stadium

This guide to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta explains why its eight-petal retractable roof only looks like it spins like a camera shutter, an illusion borrowed from the oculus of Rome's Pantheon that nearly derailed the entire project. You'll hear why the oval opening forced engineers to build the petals in four different sizes, each one gliding its own distance at its own speed yet arriving in sync, and what team owner Arthur Blank had to say about the most complicated roof design he had ever seen. It also covers the awkward months after the stadium opened in August twenty seventeen, when the roof simply would not move fast enough for game day.