When Paul and Shirley Tinsley chose to build a Monolithic Dome home in Cudjoe Key, Florida, they had no idea that they were building a home that would withstand not one, but two Category 4 hurricanes in six years: Hurricane Irma, in August of 2017, and Hurricane Ian, in September 2022.
BYU’s Triple Dome, featuring a Monolithic Dome structure, showcases advanced energy efficiency and sustainable design. Built by over 50 students, this innovative eco-friendly home highlights BYU’s dedication to practical, hands-on learning in green building technologies.
Some friends of Monolithic own a rental house in Milford, Texas, that was in dire need of some attention to the Airform. The house is about 20 years old, and the Airform has never been coated. Over the years, UV and weather damage has left the polyurethane foam exposed and blistering. A great way to renovate the exterior of a Monolithic Dome Home like this one is to patch the Airform and install a synthetic stucco coating.
Italy High School intended to hold their graduation ceremony in their new, shiny stadium, but as the temperature continued to climb on Friday, it became clear it would be unsafe to hold the festivities outside. Late in the day, the school district sent an alert that graduation had been moved to the multipurpose Monolithic Dome gymnasium, the Gladiator Coliseum.
On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, we laid to rest our friend and colleague, James Laurence Byrne, in the Sutton Cemetery near Rexburg, Idaho. Larry was a family man, church and community leader, farmer, former Air Force Captain, and a pioneer in the Monolithic Dome industry. For three decades, Larry served as chief designer at Monolithic, where he designed everything from houses to giant storages, developed standardized design elements still used across the dome industry, and consulted with engineers and architects as they worked to become familiar with dome design.
After ten careful years of discussion and development, Orange Coast College modeled its new Planetarium on our spiral Milky Way galaxy and placed a Monolithic Dome at its center.
Metal cladding adds beauty, strength and sustainability to Monolithic Domes. It reduces the need for maintenance and can add decades of life to a dome. Steel shingles protect domes from extremes of temperature, UV light, and water absorption.
Barry Braswell is carefully looking for new stewards for his family’s iconic Monolithic Dome Home situated on 40 acres in the untamed foothills of the San Bernadino Mountains of California. Built by Braswell and his uncle, Vista Dhome is 4500 square feet and features a spectacular view.
Greg O’Toole’s company, O’Toole, Inc., in Letts, Iowa, has been in the business of supplying farmers with what they need since 1981. Iowa grows more corn than any other state in the United States, at 2.5 billion bushels of corn a year, and the United States leads in corn production across the world, at 13.7 billion bushels a year, according to the Iowa Corn Growers Association. Greg chose a Monolithic Dome to contain the urea he supplies to keep that corn and other crops growing.
Have you ever wanted to build a Monolithic Dome? To get your hands dirty applying foam, hanging steel, and spraying shotcrete? Want to learn from dome builders with decades of experience? Now’s your chance. Come to the Spring 2023 Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop this April and build a genuine Monolithic Dome.
Winter construction on a new fertilizer storage for O’Toole, inc. in Letts, Iowa, went very smoothly despite the weather. One of the great things about Monolithic Dome construction is that most of the work is done inside and out of the elements. This project highlighted that advantage and is a great example of the most efficient single-component dome storage that can be built.
