Opened in 1997, the facility replaced Louis Armstrong Stadium as the primary venue for the tournament. It cost $254 million to construct, and then had 15,547 seats, 90 luxury suites, five restaurants, and a two-level players' lounge, making it by far the largest tennis-only venue in the world. Like the other in the facility, it has a DecoTurf cushioned acrylic surface. On August 25, 1997, the stadium opened by hosting the US Open, with Whitney Houston singing "One Moment in Time" during the stadium's inauguration ceremonies and dedicating the performance to the late Arthur Ashe. The stadium has also hosted the first-ever outdoor regular seasonWNBA game in 2008; the Indiana Fever beat the hostNew York LibertyThe game served as a fundraising event for breast cancer research. The facility features a Hawk-Eye electronic system which allows tennis players to challenge the umpire's decision on calls made throughout championships. In 2005, the color scheme for the courts was changed from green to electric blue inner courts and a light green outer court. All US Open Series events now use this color scheme, providing television viewers a more easily trackable ball — with the yellow tennis balls contrasting more visibly against the blue courts. On July 26–28, 2019, the stadium hosted the FortniteWorld Cup, a three-day long esports tournament with a prize pool of 30 million, $3 million of which awarded to the winner of the Finals.
Retractable roof
Lacking a roof, where relatively strong and unpredictable winds could occur inside the stadium, events were vulnerable to inclement weather — and five straight years of rain delays occurred during the US Open men's singles final from 2008 to 2012. Despite the original design's lacking provisions for a roof, the USTA announced in 2013 plans to construct a roof for the stadium using a superstructure — having consulted "with every architect involved in the design of a stadium roof in North America." Notably, the site of the Ashe center featured poor soil conditions. It had previously been Manhattan's Corona Ash Dumps and prior to that a natural wetland swamp. For the new roof, a very light solution was critical. The roof has two 800-ton fabric panels made of of lightweight PTFE membrane which can open or close on glides, up to 25 feet per minute, to create an opening roughly the size of 17 Olympic swimming pools. The stadium is not fully conditioned; a new chilled water ventilation system controls humidity when the roof is closed. The new cantilevering design is supported by eight columns that sit on concrete bases, each supported by 20 piles driven 150 to 200 feet deep and has a data acquisition and recording system along with synchronized cameras to interpret the data created by the complex control systems. The roof, which cost $150 million, was part of a $550 million renovation of the National Tennis Center. The retractable roof project was completed in 2016. The roof was designed by Rossetti Architects and its structure engineered by WSP Global. Geiger Engineers performed preliminary design of the roof's mechanization system. Hardesty & Hanover was Engineer of Record for the mechanization system and performed final design.
