Stepan Center is a multi-purpose geodesic dome built in 1962 at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

, and is located on the northeast corner of campus. The $350,000 to build Stepan Center was donated to the university by Alfred Stepan, the founder of Stepan Company, and his wife, Mary Louise. The facility, which was one of the first

geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic ...

built in the United States, has of floor space. With its brick base, gold-anodized aluminum dome and silver ceiling, the center attracted widespread attention at its opening, according t
a 2022 Notre Dame Magazine article
On October 18, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Stepan Center, in an event organized the South Bend Citizens’ Civic Planning Committee as a fundraiser for the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...

. King spoke about the problems of segregation, discrimination, and the civil right movement. The event, arranged by Theodore Hesburgh, was at the venue's s capacity and attracted a racially mixed crowd estimated at 3,000 to 3,500 people. As of spring 2022, Stepan Center was still being heavily used for Notre Dame student events and the university had invested in repairs to its roof, installed new windows and made other improvements to assure its continued use.

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* Geodesic domes University and college buildings completed in 1962 University of Notre Dame buildings and structures {{Indiana-struct-stub