Superior Dome

14-storey wooden dome at NMU, one of the largest of its kind in the world

The Superior Dome on the campus of Northern Michigan University is, depending on how you measure, either the largest or the second-largest wooden dome in the world. The 14-storey structure encloses about 5.1 acres and serves as the home field for the NMU Wildcats football team along with a wide range of other sports and events.

Self-guided tours are possible when the dome is not in use; staff at the adjacent athletic offices will usually point you toward the public viewing gallery. It's a brief stop but visually impressive — the curved fir ceiling seen from inside is genuinely striking.

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A story
The dome's 781 Douglas-fir beams form a self-supporting structure with no internal columns, sized so that a regulation football field plus full perimeter seating fits inside. When it opened in 1991 it was the largest wooden dome on the planet — locally everyone calls it the Yooper Dome, after the regional nickname for residents of the U.P.