The Roof is Here: Seven Weeks to go for New Warriors Arena

For a week the crew of Fabritecture, from Australia, has been putting the ceiling structure together on the cement pad that is the foundation for the 4,000-seat new downtown Santa Cruz basketball arena.

One of the crew members, from New Zealand, didn't want to be identified, but gave Patch some insight into his job, traveling the world putting up portable roofs.

He worked for a year and a half with Cirque du Soleil putting that Canadian traveling circus's tents together, as well as building effects for the show.

"I get called out all over the world to build roofs quickly," he said. "If a 747 goes down somewhere, we have to build a roof over it for the investigation right away. People are surprised how quickly we can get it done."

One of his coworkers is bound for New York as soon as the Santa Cruz Kaiser Permanente roof is finished, in the next week or so.

"The canvas on these is much different than the old circus tents," he said. "This is really meant to last."

The crew has built the roof structure for one week, working over the weekend.

The structure that now covers the concrete will be lifted by a huge crane on Thursday and will unfold like a giant spider, the worker said. It should be dramatic. After that, the canvas goes on and the building takes even more form.