Dorton Arena's engineering is elegant in its audacity. Two parabolic concrete arches rise from the ground, cross each other roughly 26 feet above floor level, and continue downward into the earth on opposite sides, where their buried ends are bound together by steel cables in tension. Between these arches, a web of steel cables stretches to form a saddle-shaped roof, curving upward in one direction and downward in the other. The roof hangs in tension while the arches hold it in compression. The glass-and-metal curtain walls enclosing the 7,610-seat arena are essentially decoration; they carry next to no structural load. It was a revelation: a massive enclosed space supported not by heavy walls and columns, but by the interplay of cables pulling and arches pushing.

Nowicki's design rippled outward from Raleigh like a shockwave through the architectural community. Within two years, the Europe 1-Broadcasting House in Uberherrn, Germany, borrowed the concept. The auditorium Paul-Emile Janson rose in Brussels in 1956. Eero Saarinen's Ingalls Rink appeared in New Haven in 1958. Kenzo Tange's Yoyogi National Gymnasium dazzled Tokyo for the 1964 Olympics. Berlin's Congress Hall, completed in 1957 as a symbol of the German-American Cold War alliance, drew directly from Dorton's cable-suspended vocabulary. From Bratislava to Beverwijk, architects and engineers recognized that Nowicki had unlocked a new structural language. The American Society of Civil Engineers designated Dorton Arena a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2002, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

For all its architectural pedigree, Dorton Arena has lived a gloriously unpretentious life. Built on the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, it was originally designed for livestock shows, and its main floor has hosted everything from cattle judging to circuses. Professional wrestling packed the house through the 1970s and 1980s, with weekly bouts that became a Raleigh institution. On January 27, 1981, Rowdy Roddy Piper defeated Ric Flair for the NWA U.S. Heavyweight Championship under Dorton's soaring cables. The Raleigh IceCaps of the ECHL played hockey there from 1991 to 1998. The ABA's Carolina Cougars, a regional franchise that split home games between Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Raleigh, brought Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown and MVP Billy Cunningham to the arena in the early 1970s.

Dorton Arena and Reynolds Coliseum were Raleigh's only major concert venues for decades before larger facilities arrived. The building's glass curtain walls give every seat an unobstructed view, but the hard surfaces sent sound bouncing around the space in unpredictable ways. Fair officials have invested in acoustic improvements over the years, taming the reverberations enough to host major touring acts. During the annual North Carolina State Fair, the arena becomes the centerpiece of the fairgrounds, filling with concerts and exhibitions alongside the neighboring Jim Graham building. Shaw University and Meredith College hold their graduation ceremonies here, and the FIRST Robotics Competition chose Dorton Arena as the first-ever regional competition venue in the state. It is a building that refuses to be merely admired from a distance; it insists on being used.