The process that led to construction of the auditorium began in 1957 when incumbent university President
Grady Gammage desired a unique facility for the ASU campus. In 1956, a collapsed roof rendered the school's combination auditorium/gymnasium unusable. Gammage recruited his friend
Frank Lloyd Wright to design the new building. He would, with various budget related alterations, base its design on a circular opera house that he had conceptualized for the city of
Baghdad sometime prior upon the invitation of Iraqi
King Faisal II. Plans for that opera house were abandoned after Faisal's assassination in the
14 July Revolution. Wright is also said to be responsible for siting the auditorium, selecting an athletic field at 1200 South Forest Avenue which had formerly held on-campus
G.I. housing units. Wright and Gammage both died in 1959, leaving Wright's protégé
William Wesley Peters to undertake completion of the auditorium. Spearheaded by the
Robert E. McKee Company, construction of the facility commenced in 1962 and was completed twenty-five months later, officially opening on September 18, 1964, in time to host The
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by
Eugene Ormandy.
Notable events The auditorium was used for the funeral of Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican presidential nominee
Barry Goldwater on June 3, 1998. On October 13, 2004, the auditorium was the site of the third and closing debate between
George W. Bush and
John Kerry in the
2004 U.S. Presidential Election. ==Structure==