It was a great pleasure to read your fine Squaw and Alpine book – a real page turner. I was amazed how complete and balanced you were able to be. You seemed to have avoided getting opinions in the way of history.

There are many stories about the collapse of the Arena, most claiming a conspiracy. I know your account is correct. The Olympic buildings were designed for 60 pounds per square foot, being ‘temporary.” The code at the time was 100#, over 200# per square foot now. The arena design was very clever with the waste heat from the ice making causing the roof to be slick. My guess is that the weight of snow when it collapsed was over 6,000,000 pounds, 3000 tons. Any machine would have been a small percentage of this, but maneuvering around the cables would have been tricky.

—Henrik Bull, Architect