DOME LEAVES PAPER TRAIL
Nebraska teacher creates scaled-down model versions of ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’
While local officials wrangle over what to do with the Astrodome, Trey Murphy had his own idea.
Build a scaled-down version entirely out of paper.
The “Eighth Wonder of the World” comes with “Tequila Sunrise” seats, lamella roof, interchangeable surfaces that feature various events held in the stadium’s history and a few hidden surprises.
“I’ve never actually been to Houston, but the Astrodome is iconic,” Murphy, a 31-year-old physical education teacher in Papillion, Neb., said by phone this week.
The Dome is the latest in a growing list of Murphy’s paper creations, which have developed a social media following at twitter.com/PaperStadiums as he posts videos and updates.
“When I was a kid, I loved drawing stadiums,” Murphy said. “I was just kind of obsessed with stadiums. I just thought it was kind of a weird niche that I was the only one. I found out that there are a lot of people that thought they were
the only one.”
With school closed for the past six weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, Murphy has more time to devote to his hobby, which has grown from 3-D stadiums not modeled after any particular venue to Rosenblatt Stadium, the one-time home of the College World Series he grew up down the street from in Omaha. Next came Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium and Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium.
Murphy began researching lists of stadiums for his next challenge.
“Everybody wants me to do Fenway Park,” he said of the Boston Red Sox’s home. “It’s almost like when everybody wants you to do something, you’re almost defiant against it.”
One stadium caught his interest.
“The Astrodome,” he said. “My creative juices started flowing — how I was going to do this, how much fun it’s going to be.”
Each creation requires an X-Acto knife, glue, Sharpie markers, construction paper, card stock and some printer paper. Technically, the only thing that is not paper is the base, which is a type of foam poster board.
Murphy found a Dome layout online and combed through thousands of photos for design and color accuracy. His attention to detail includes the red, yellow and orange “Tequila Sunrise” seats that were a unique feature of the stadium, which last hosted a sporting event in 1999.
Murphy began the project with a sturdy base — a piece of a diaper box that stays flat and rigid — that allows him to switch out different field levels to highlight the multiuse stadium.
“If you flip the Oilers field over, you’ll see my son wears size 5 Huggies,” he said.
It took some creativity, Murphy said, to “curve here and there” many of the triangle-shaped cutouts to form the diagonal trusses and horizontal supports of the Astrodome’s roof. The exterior features the Dome’s columns.
“One of the hardest things I’ve done with the paper stadiums,” Murphy said of creating the roof.
In each stadium, Murphy likes to add so-called “Easter eggs” for people to find. The manual scoreboard has the final score — Astros 9, Los Angeles Dodgers 4 — of the final regular-season game in the stadium.
Murphy has one regret. About halfway through the project, he learned the Dome had undergone a late 1980s renovation that removed the Home Run Spectacular — the famed 500-foot outfield scoreboard that featured a snorting bull, lighted flags and cowboy pistols — to add 10,000 seats. Instead,
Murphy’s Dome features the more modest scoreboards that were installed after the renovation.
“I found out about halfway through the process that apparently everybody in Houston liked the Dome before the renovation, and I did post-renovation,” Murphy said. “I didn’t know that was a controversial topic. I didn’t realize how many Astros and Oilers fans loved that giant video board. If I could go back in time, I would have done pre-renovation Dome.”
Murphy planned to include lights in the Dome like his earlier Yankee Stadium but couldn’t. “Hobby Lobby is closed,” he explained.
To highlight the Dome’s multiuse aspect, Murphy solicited ideas from Twitter followers. Along with the Astros and Oilers artificial-playing surfaces, Murphy also designed one for Evel Knievel — including a mini paper motorcycle and ramp — the basketball court for the “Game of the Century” between Houston and UCLA, a tennis court for the “Battle of the Sexes” between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs and WrestleMania.
“I had to stop myself,” Murphy said.
The entire project, which took about three weeks, is 15x15 and stands 4½ inches. Murphy has the paper Astrodome listed on Etsy for $750. Murphy said because of his teaching responsibilities, he normally has time for only four projects a year. But with the COVID-19 public health crisis, he’s been able to tackle several projects.
“Now with quarantine, I may not be working until August, so I might be doing two a month right now,” he said. “Obviously, I would rather the world be normal and my kids safe, but if there is any benefit that comes out of this, it’s for me I get to work on my stadiums a little more. It’s a full-time job right now.”
Does Murphy feel like he missed his calling as an architect or artist?
“I kind of wish I would have gone back and been an architect,” he said. “I do love being a teacher.”
Next up: Murphy has a special order to create San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, and he plans to build Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, entirely out of baseball cards.
“Just something different,” he said.