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The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority has put a draft 389-page 

 for a new Vikings stadium up on its website, and it's got some intriguing new details about what's to come.

We just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? 

Technically, the name is ethylene tetrafluoroethylene. It's an architectural polymer that's mentioned in the EIS, and made famous as the translucent exterior of the Beijing National Aquatics Center, among other places. There's a whole bunch of pictures of other architectural uses over at the website of 

, which makes the Texlon version of the material.

Here's what the draft EIS actually has to say about the material and its use in the new Vikings stadium. The document leaves open some of the most intriguing questions, like whether there will be an open wall or a retractable roof on the new stadium. But there are other details:

"Fritted," by the way, apparently means patterned or printed in some way, when it comes to architectural membranes.

ETFE shows up in another recent stadium design.  On the same day in September that HKS Architects was chosen to design the Minneapolis stadium, officials in Tampa Bay were 

unveiling a design of a proposed Rays stadium

 by HKS -- and featuring the possible use of ETFE for the roof and back wall.

Tim Nelson

Author

The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority has put a draft 389-page Environmental Impact Statement for a new Vikings stadium up on its website, and it’s got some intriguing new details about what’s to come. To paraphrase the oft-quoted scene from The Graduate: We just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening?…

Will the new Vikings stadium take a cue from the Beijing Olympics?

Go Deeper.

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