An
Empty Shell--
The Beginning of the Process
by
David B. South, Jr.
reprinted from The Monolithic Dome Roundup Summer 2000
The wind was flipping over a little blue wading pool. I couldn?t quite figure out why that little pool would be on a construction site. It looked like something my two-year-old lost from our backyard. Soon someone stopped it and placed it under a diesel fuel tank. I thought, ?What a clever idea to capture accidental fuel spills.?
But the pool was not the problem; it was the wind.
At 280 feet, the Airform was the largest diameter ever built. Weighing nearly 29,000 pounds, the Airform needs to inflate as smoothly as possible. When laying over three cranes and weighed down with a layer of water or when inflated, tight with pressure, the fabric form is safe from all but severe winds. But during inflation, a medium breeze can move and possibly whip the enormous form around.
It?s two o?clock. The forecast calls for the wind to calm down in a few hours. The crew of Dome Technology uses this time to check every clamp attaching the Airform to the foundation. Once under pressure, the Airform will lift with 410,200 pounds of force. Each of the 586 clamps must hold 700 pounds of force to keep the Airform attached.
By four o?clock, the Airform is ready and a generator provided by the local utility is being installed to augment the power requirements on the site. People from the church and the local media are starting to gather.
At five o?clock, Barry South, president of Dome Technology, and Randy South, Production Manager, decide it?s time to turn on the four large fans. Slowly, the Airform rises. It bulges up in places and forces the water off the fabric. Many of us climb up a nearby hill to gain a better view. Even from there, I cannot frame the entire width of the dome in my camera. Seven o?clock and the dome is fully inflated. By this time tomorrow, the first layer of foam will be applied. Over the next eight weeks, several inches of polyurethane foam will be sprayed, tons of rebar hung, and eight inches of shotcrete applied. Then the fans will be shut down and the Monolithic Dome will be finished.
As we step inside this gigantic building for the first time, I see an empty shell, waiting for whatever will be placed inside. This dome will be a church (Catching The Vision, page 14) but it could easily be a 7,000 seat hockey arena. Or maybe a college basketball stadium. Or even a destination resort with an amusement park inside.
But whatever its use, it all started as a simple fabric form laid on a circle in the sand. An empty shell to start, but a most useful building when finished.
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