Dome Doings

From an email sent by the RBFDNFP Let the Transformation Begin… It’s not everyday you get a chance to see a geodesic dome assembled, let alone a 3-frequency, 20 foot diameter, 6,000 pound, 5/9 hemisphere one! If you are near SIUC’s Quigley Hall (875 S. Normal Ave.) between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm today (Monday, March 15), you will get exactly that opportunity. The Buckminster Fuller Dome Home Non-Profit (RBF Dome NFP), Fuller Dome Transformation Initiative, faculty members of the SIUC School of Architecture, and Blair Wolfram from the St. Paul, MN based Dome Inc. are combining efforts with a number of SIUC students to piece and bolt together the 3-ton structure. This spontaneous event is meant to draw attention to the upcoming Fuller Dome Transformation Initiative, which will be taking place university and citywide Sunday, April 18 to Thursday, April 22 (see www.BuckysDome.org for more information). This 5-day event, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the building of the R. Buckminster & Anne Hewlett Fuller Dome Home, will feature some of the world’s top Bucky experts in a number of presentations, panels and mixers, in addition to a wide of range of film showings, live performances, improv/sketch comedy, poetry readings and design competitions. While watching the raising of the all steel geodesic dome structure, you could discover that your affiliation with SIUC connects you to a rare and precious legacy. The man many considered “the father of sustainability” called SIUC home for 12 years! R. Buckminster Fuller remains one of the most internationally acclaimed figures associated SIUC. His own “home” in Carbondale was a self-designed geodesic dome, one of his 28 patents, which stands today on the corner of Forest and Cherry Streets – awaiting a complete restoration that will bring it to a national historic landmark standard.