Tinsley Double Dome Home Overlooking Cudjoe Key Bay

Riding Out the Storms: Monolithic Dome Home Survives Two Hurricanes

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.



News

O’Toole, Inc.’s Fertilizer Storage Dome: Where Simple Means Profitable

An aerial view of O’Toole, Inc.‘s 60-foot diameter fertilizer storage dome in Letts, Iowa.

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.

Learn to Build a Dome at the Spring 2024 Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop

Students take turns applying shotcrete to a Monolithic Dome they built during the workshop.

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.

Easy Winter Construction of O’Toole’s Fertilizer Storage Dome—Step by Step in Pictures

O’Toole Fertilizer Storage in Letts, Iowa

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.

The Art of Perfect Stucco on the Brown’s House

The stucco finish on the Brown’s Monolithic Dome Home in Aubrey, Texas.

This pictorial illustrates the steps we took to give Ryan Brown’s house in Aubrey, Texas, the perfect stucco exterior. The stucco system on Ryan Brown’s Monolithic Dome home will last 10 to 15 years before a top coat will be needed. The top coats are easy and cost-effective to apply and can be done by the homeowner or local paint contractor.

Carefully Renovated Monolithic Dome Home and Horse Ranch For Sale in Idyllic Rural Illinois

Round Tuit Ranch Monolithic Dome home sits on 3.3 acres in Polo, Illinois.

Round Tuit Ranch in Polo, Illinois, is for sale. The 2200 square foot, fully remodeled, Monolithic Dome home rests on 3.3 acres of park-like farmland. The home includes an open floor plan with a spacious kitchen and living room, four bedrooms, and two full baths. The acreage surrounding the dome provides a home for horses, too. There are fenced pastures, a 28-foot x 20-foot hay barn, and a 32-foot x 14-foot horse barn with three stalls.

Protecting People in Paradise—The Kauai Resilience Center

The preliminary sketch by Architect Rick Crandall

Planning and fundraising for the Kauai Resilience Center is underway. The three-dome disaster response center is designed to house a fire department, police, emergency medical personnel, and public shelters for up to 450 people. Up to 1500 people could take shelter in the center during an emergency. Jill Lowry, director of Anaina Hou Community Park, said that few structures on Kauai could survive winds stronger than a large tropical storm. She warns a hurricane could strike at any time, or a fire could rage, and she wants Kauai to be ready.

Double Feature—2023 Monolithic Dome Tour Plus Annular Eclipse

Tambrin Answers Questions

At about noon on October 14, 2023, an eclipse slid through the sky, and visitors stared upward, wearing special eyewear provided by Gary Clark of Monolithic. They came from all parts of Texas and from Southern states like Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Alabama. They spilled in from as far northwest as Washington state and from the Midwestern states of Oklahoma and Kansas. They arrived from the Buckeye State, Ohio; the home of the Hoosiers, Indiana; and the Rockies of Colorado. But they hadn’t come to see the eclipse; they came to tour the headquarters of the Monolithic Dome Institute.