The facility was designed by Graham McCourt Architects. While they set out to design a unique building, the idea of a western theme never occurred to Barry Graham or his team. The roof of the building was designed to be a reverse hyperbolic paraboloid, allowing for a pillar free view from all seats and reducing the interior volume by up to one-third when compared to traditional arenas, resulting in reduced heating, lighting and maintenance costs, plus the floating roof can flex to compensate for the city's frequent temperature fluctuations. When the design was unveiled, the roof was immediately referred to as being saddle-shaped. Of 1,270 entries submitted in a contest to name the arena, 735 involved the word Saddle. The winning name in the contest, "Olympic Saddledome", was drawn from a hat filled with several similar saddle-themed names. At the time the name received a tepid reception from some, including the chairman of Calgary's Olympic Organizing Committee (OCO), Frank King, who was quoted as saying "It is neither Olympic nor western, and it's not even dome".