The necessity of introducing a major scale athletics complex within a residential neighborhood, which had already shown considerable opposition to the project, resulted in the selection of an inflated stainless steel‐membrane roof structure to minimize the visual impact of the 150 000‐sq‐ft complex. The steel membrane roof structure, because of its minimal thickness and load‐carrying capacity, presented challenging acoustical problems in sound isolation, to minimize the impact of activity noise within the field house on the surrounding neighborhood, and to control the interior noise from rainfall on the exposed metal roof surface. A suspended acoustical ceiling system was developed to control external noise radiated, attenuate rain noise, and simultaneously control reverberation within the field house and control potential echoes from the shallow‐domed ceiling. This ceiling system was designed to permit partial deflation of the membrane, and subsequent recovery, without damage, and within the severe weight restrictions. A sound‐reinforcement system, consisting of concentric rings of separately amplified high‐frequency horns and low‐frequency loudspeakers was used, with electronic signal delay to control echoes and enhance directional realism.

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