An EF3 tornado smashed through Beggs, Oklahoma, in early March. It uprooted trees, flipped trucks, lifted roofs, demolished buildings, and, sadly, killed two people. But for the dozens of residents sheltering in Monolithic Dome safe rooms, it was serene.

Another workshop is complete, with 25 hard-working and attentive students from all over the US and even the UK. In five days, they completed an unusual addition to a Monolithic Dome Home. Heads up, Workshop prices are changing.

Monolithic manufactures a variety of fabric forms and architectural products. One example is odor-free compost covers used for industrial-sized composting systems. We have 15 years of experience in the industry and our compost covers handle repeated use without breaking down or losing performance.

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Monolithic Dome by scrolling through this photo journal of favorite dome moments! This retrospective is a highlight reel, a rough timeline, and a Thank You for making the last 50 years so fantastic.

Bruco, the famous Texas-Italian caterpillar, recently underwent an exterior renovation, including new boots and a redesigned face by the granddaughters of David B. South, inventor of the Monolithic Dome and creator of the original structure. The 30-year-old manufacturing facility is a caterpillar-shaped Monolithic Dome and a popular part of the Monolithic Dome Research Park and Central Texas landscape.

In the Fall of 2025, James Crisp and his family experienced the kind of catastrophe every homeowner fears. A fire broke out in their home of 14 years, destroying everything inside. What it did not destroy was the Monolithic Dome recently built next to it.

The 2025 Monolithic Dome Research Park Tour was fun and productive. People showed up smiling, curious, and ready to explore every corner of our commercial facilities and five dome homes located here.

Monolithic Domes are tough, efficient, and built to last. But there’s one part of every dome that does need attention from time to time. If you ignore it, the fix can turn into an expensive problem. Let’s talk about dome roofs, how long they really last, and the point at which you need to step in and take care of maintenance.

Tornadoes sweep through Oklahoma and Kansas every year, and people take cover as best they can in storm shelters and basements. At the Kickapoo Community Childcare Center, the staff saw the fear on the little faces of their students every time tornado warning sirens sounded, and they wanted to find a way to keep children safe and secure in all weather. Their solution was to build a Monolithic Dome.

Thank you to everyone who attended the tour. The Monolithic Dome Research Park in Italy, Texas, is hosting a dome tour on October 18, 2025. The tour is free and open to the public. The Research Park features over 75 domes of all uses, shapes, and sizes—including several dome homes. Plus, visit the newly refinished Texas landmark—Bruco: The Texas Italian Caterpillar.

After building a thriving 48-dome apartment community in Texas, Kevin McGuckin and Hannah Mallon turned to Tennessee to create a masterpiece to retire in. The Iron Mountain Dome—energy-efficient, rock-clad, and nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains—blends custom woodwork and handmade tiles with natural beauty.

Hail rarely harms a Monolithic Dome, but extreme storms can damage Airforms. This story follows four domes through violent hail, how they fared compared with conventional structures, and their repairs when needed.

Cloudome, a Monolithic Dome home situated on a 24-acre wooded plot in Menlo, Georgia, is a once-in-a-lifetime property for sale. With an interior lovingly clad in wood harvested from the property, Cloudome is a great example of how Monolithic Dome construction adapts beautifully to a natural, rural setting while offering unmatched durability and comfort.

Monolithic Domes are super-insulated, airtight structures that save money on heating and cooling. A byproduct of this excellent insulation and closed system can be a rise in CO2 and humidity. Luckily, these are problems easily fixed with the right design and air handling system tailored to fit the space.

Looking for a durable, fast-build storm shelter for your RV park or property? In just nine days, we built a reinforced Monolithic Dome storm shelter for RV park owner Leslie Mezzabifera. Complete with a Tornado Tamer door and custom-installed ship porthole windows, this safe room offers long-term protection, emergency readiness, and year-round functionality.

Building a single-family, Monolithic Dome dream home is out of reach for most people due to time, cost, zoning and other factors. In this story, Brian A. McLoughlin of Green Dome Living offers a solution—Silo-Style Monolithic Dome Apartment Buildings.

Four tornado shelters in Central Ohio show how communities are investing in Monolithic Domes for long-term safety. FEMA helped fund most of them—though one town is still waiting. Whether or not FEMA continues to defray the costs of constructing tornado shelters, resilient towns have been choosing Monolithic Domes for decades. They cost the same as conventional structures but offer unmatched protection and performance.

DIY Photo Tutorial: Good maintenance of your Monolithic Dome involves cleaning and coating it every 5 to 10 years. These tasks can be done safely by installing one of our stainless steel Anchor Points, designed specifically for Monolithic Domes. This photo tutorial walks you through the steps involved in retrofitting your dome.

Construction Photo Journal! We recently built a 43-foot-diameter dome home with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a spacious kitchen, and a dedicated utility space in the Hill Country of Central Texas. We snapped some photos during construction for this story illustrating the steps involved in building a Monolithic Dome home.

One of the biggest hurdles in dome home construction is financing. Banks are much more willing to approve loans when a project follows a traditional package deal, meaning a general contractor, like Tri-Lakes Construction of Colorado, presents a proposal covering the entire build. This approach reassures lenders that the project will be completed as planned, unlike owner-managed projects, which carry more risk in the bank’s eyes.

Construction wraps on the final Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop in Dawson, Texas, with the completion of a much-needed laundromat. Almost 30 students attended the five-day course with hands-on and classroom instruction. The September Workshop will be in Italy, Texas.

We love this new Monolithic Dome home in Florida so much, we hired a professional photographer to show it off. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a den, and a loft. The open living area and kitchen make the space feel warm and welcoming. Outside, the house is tucked into the trees beside a tranquil pond, and the screened-in porch is ideal for taking in the view.

Today’s video takes you inside Bruco—our manufacturing plant where we build every Monolithic Dome Airform and other fabric architecture projects.

We’re back at it in Florida, putting up another Monolithic Dome—this time using an Orion-style design with a Transverse Airform inflated atop a segmented stemwall.

Whether you’re just beginning to explore the possibilities or are ready to move forward, this guide walks you through the practical steps involved in turning your dream into a resilient, energy-efficient Monolithic Dome home.

One of the most exciting parts of our work is designing and inflating complex shapes and connectors with Airforms. These flexible, inflatable molds allow us to push the boundaries of architecture—opening up almost limitless possibilities in building design. Recently, we’ve had a blast bringing some truly creative projects to life.

Rick Crandall, a pioneer of the Monolithic Dome industry, has designed hundreds of domes worldwide. Blending art and architecture, his work ranges from post-disaster housing in Indonesia to innovative schools and homes, all driven by a deep commitment to beauty, sustainability, and purposeful design.

Drs. Tom and Maureen Anderson built Living Word Bible Church with three Monolithic Domes 30 years ago, turning a bold vision into a thriving, 15,000-member community. Their faith and innovation made it an iconic landmark in Mesa, Arizona.

Our crew arrived in Florida on December 5, 2024 to start construction on a new three bedroom Monolithic Dome home. This photo journal has images of each step of the construction.

Monolithic has teamed up with Duro-Last Roofing to create a new method for renovating Monolithic Domes. ReCover by Monolithic replaces deteriorating or damaged roofing membranes and restores your investment. When the River Bend Ag domes needed renovation, they received beautiful results with a ReCover by Monolithic facelift.

Last year, we were asked to help build some forms for a precast culvert system. We were excited to be part of that project, but you have higher pressure requirements in a precast system. These higher requirements forced the question, how much pressure can these forms take?

While no single solution can solve every problem, incorporating Monolithic Domes into disaster mitigation plans—whether as homes, schools, municipal buildings or community shelters—can save lives and provide a foundation for quicker recovery.

Monolithic superintendent Javier Figueroa took some great photos during the construction of a ring-beam footing and the attachment and inflation stages of a 55-foot hoop-style Monolithic Dome in South Carolina. Check out this quick photo journal.

This photo journal depicts the construction of the dome shell for a house we recently completed in Vermont. It is an insider’s tour of the steps to construct a Monolithic Dome home. This home is a two-story dome with a 43-foot diameter. It sits on a 10-foot stemwall and is 25 feet tall in total.

On the edge of Sedona, Arizona, greeting travelers driving the Red Rock Scenic Byway, is Sedona Domes, created originally as “Xanadu of Sedona” in the early 90s. The Arizonan landmark has taken on a new identity with its current owners, Laura Lee and Paul Robear. The couple updated the historic Monolithic Dome home and share it with others via their highly-rated, popular Airbnb.

In February, we started the patterning and manufacturing of one of our most unique projects for 2024. This Airform is for a clubhouse being built in Virginia. It is made up of six interconnected, 60-foot (12 m) diameter domes. Three domes will have massive cutouts in which glass walls will be installed.

Turkiye’s new Presidential Symphony Orchestra (or CSO) Concert Hall in Ankara, Turkiye, officially opened in 2021 and has since hosted hundreds of performances by artists from every artistic genre and every corner of the world. It features two Monolithic Domes and has become a symbol of Turkiye’s rich and ever-evolving cultural landscape and is the country’s artistic epicenter.

Electrical wiring is more than power for lights, air conditioning, and toasters. It’s also phone calls, surfing the web, fire alarms, and a surround sound theater—any system where an electrical circuit is needed. With proper planning, wiring a Monolithic Dome—whether it’s a home, school, storage, or storm shelter—is straightforward.

Come and tour the shops, offices, and houses at the Monolithic Dome Research Park in Italy, Texas. This FREE tour is open to the public on October 19, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes the famous Bruco: The Texas Italian Caterpillar.

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.

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.