A major event for the College, the inauguration of Safa Zaki as Bowdoin’s sixteenth president required a tent large enough to cover the ceremony and attendees in the event of mid-October showers.
The largest tent ever brought to campus, it was one hundred feet wide and one hundred and eighty-five feet long, creating 18,500 square feet for the stage party and 1,250 chairs.The tent was so large its parts had to be trucked in on massive trailers and a 45-ton-capacity crane brought in to help erect it.
A crew of thirteen people worked over three days to build the tent, and others spent the week leading up to inauguration getting it ready for the ceremony, rigging it with lights and speakers. The aluminum structure provided such rigid support that no center poles were required, but eleven concrete blocks, each weighing 2,500 pounds, were brought in to help anchor it to the ground.
Images by Andrew Estey
