Civic Arena (formerly the
Civic Auditorium and later
Mellon Arena) was an
arena located in downtown
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. The Civic Arena primarily served as the home to the
Pittsburgh Penguins, the city's
National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, from 1967 to 2010. It was the first
retractable roof major-sports venue in the world, covering 170,000 sq. feet, constructed with nearly 3,000 tons of Pittsburgh steel and supported solely by a massive 260-foot-long cantilevered arm on the exterior. Even though it was designed and engineered as a retractable-roof dome, the operating cost and repairs to the hydraulic jacks halted all full retractions after 1995, and the roof stayed permanently closed after 2001. The first roof opening was during a July 4, 1962
Carol Burnett show to which she exclaimed "Ladies and Gentlemen...I present the sky!"