Raising a Roof: 4 Ideas For the fifth straight year, the United States Open men's final was pushed back a day, to Monday, because of weather problems. This tournament had its share of interruptions - which means the chorus of complaints resumed about the lack of a roof over courts at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The Australian Open has retractable roofs on two courts at Melbourne Park and plans for a third; Centre Court at Wimbledon added a retractable roof in 2009; and the new Roland Garros stadium with a retractable roof is expected to make its debut at the French Open in 2017. But United States Tennis Association officials have said that Arthur Ashe Stadium, built on a swamp-like ash dump, could not absorb the weight of a roof that would cover its expanse. How hard would it be to overcome those obstacles? Not very, at least for the students at Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning and Design, one of the nation's top architecture programs. The New York Times invited them to brainstorm how they might keep the rain out of Arthur Ashe Stadium without putting too much weight on the weak soil. They were given 48 hours to do it. Here are their proposals. Begin Slide Show