The air-supported roof over B.C. Place Stadium was first inflated in 1982. During inflation, the lighter exterior panels rose higher than the centralarea, whcih has about twice the dead weight due to the two-way cable grid. This is the same shape that the roof will take when the internal pressure and the dead loads plus applied load are nearly in equilibrium.

The design consists of a fabric outer membrane and an inner liner made of the same material, attached to a two-way steel cable net system, which is in turn anchored to a concrete base ring. The patented technique for designing the length and direction of the cables and the shape of the ring derives from a mathmatical solution formulated by David Geiger. It has been compared to a tennis racket in the way it distributes stresses along the ring beam.

The air system at B.C. Place consists of eight fan rooms at ground level, with two fans in each room. Air is supplied to the roof via vertical ducts. Only one half the capacity of one fan is required to combat building leakage.

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