Norfolk Scope

Норфолк, United States

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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Norfolk Scope is a multi-function complex completed in 1971 in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, designed by renowned Italian architect and engineer Pier Luigi Nervi in conjunction with the local firm Williams and Tazewell. The complex comprises an 11,000-seat arena, the 2,500-seat Chrysler Hall theater, a 65,000-square-foot modular exhibition hall, and a 600-car parking garage. The arena's defining feature is its reinforced concrete dome, derived from Nervi's earlier Olympic structures in Rome and, at the time of completion, the world's largest reinforced thinshell concrete dome—though it was surpassed by the Seattle Kingdome beginning in 1976. Built at a cost of $35 million, with federal funds covering $23 million, Scope opened on November 12, 1971, as the second-largest public complex in Virginia after the Pentagon. The name evokes kaleidoscope, reflecting the venue's reconfigurable design; the logo was created by Raymond Loewy's firm Loewy/Snaith. In 2003, the structure received the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects Test of Time award.