Holding the Line: Engineering the Structure Behind the Sound

As a structural engineer, most of my work is meant to be invisible. If I've done my job right, no one notices. That's especially true of the Payson High School Dome — a massive concrete structure turned high-performance gymnasium. Hundreds of people will walk through that space, play games, watch their kids, and never think twice about what's holding everything up.

That's exactly how it should be.

The ask

When my longtime friend and collaborator Bradley Lewis called about this project, I knew it would be different. He doesn't bring me in for simple stuff. The plan was ambitious: 540 fabric-wrapped acoustic baffles to solve a classic problem in dome construction — more than seven seconds of echo. The catch: the entire structure is shotcrete, with no structural steel frame to tie into. Everything had to hang from anchors embedded directly into high-strength concrete. No second chances.

Precision under pressure

The challenge was simple to describe and complex to solve: suspend more than six tons — 12,360 pounds of baffles and rings, over 4,000 pounds per ring set — from a dome's lid, guarantee long-term stability, and respect the realities of an active install site. My design carried redundant load paths and verification checks at every stage, with live load tests before and during the install.

When a pin came loose midway through installation, the system held. That moment wasn't just a structural test — it was a trust test. The right design lets you recover gracefully. That's why we engineer with margin and rigor.

More than a project

What made this job stand out wasn't the scale — it was the collaboration. I've known Bradley since we were kids. We've walked through failure, change, and rebuilding — personally and professionally. So when he said "this one matters," I listened.

He's been in the trenches with me, helping Ozer Engineering grow not just as a business but as a practice. And I've been honored to back him when the engineering needed to be airtight. This project brought that full circle: two friends, one very loud dome — now very quiet.

Acoustically, the reverberation is under two seconds. Visually, the baffles look intentional and striking. Structurally? It's built to last. The quiet pride comes from knowing the system will hold — and that the people I trust most were right there making it happen.

Dmitry Ozeryansky, P.E. · Principal Engineer, Ozer Engineering