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McLain, who participated in construction of the Louisiana Superdome in the mid-1970s for Hunt Construction, said the supertrusses and design of the roof system are unique. "It's a much more lightweight structure for a roof system than you would typically see on an arena like this," he added. "In many ways, this structure resembles the Superdome and, even before that, the Astrodome.
"And even though the roof structures for those facilities are obviously much larger than this arena - I can still remember the area of the Superdome roof covers nine acres - the similarities are there. The major difference here is the weight. With Walter P. Moore's design, those steel supercolumns and supertrusses allow for a much more lightweight roof, which translates into many things, including reduced construction costs."
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(This is talking about the nearby basketball arena, but gives info on the Superdome wall pressures):
The nearby Superdome (approximately 68.58 m northeast of the new arena) had a significant effect on the wind pressure patterns for the new arena. The flow over the curved Superdome surface resulted in a strong downward, rather than horizontal, flow toward the new arena from winds coming from the northwest. This created positive (downward) roof pressures where there would normally be roof uplift. This load case had a significant effect on joist and joist-girder design for the roof.
The Superdome also affected arena wall pressures. If the arena were isolated, a northerly wind would create positive pressures on the arena's north face and negative pressures on its south face. However, as the winds come off the Superdome they cause a negative pressure in the space between the two structures, generating a negative north wall pressure. In southerly winds the Superdome causes a back pressure between the two buildings, creating a positive north wall pressure instead of a negative pressure. These results were somewhat startling at first and could only have been predicted using a wind-tunnel study.