Bad concrete. A projector flashes picture after picture of concrete voids, poorly embedded rebar, and a concrete mess all over the ground. It’s Friday afternoon at the Spring 2023 Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop and Gary Clark is giving his presentation, “The Worst Shotcrete Job, Ever.”

Local residents are enjoying the years of planning and work put in to improve the well-being of the community offered at the Reeves County Recreation Center. The facility began as an idea among the county commissioners in early 2012. Though elected officials changed over the years, each court has had at least one torchbearer who refused to let the dream lose momentum.

With an almost 100-year history of development, it is estimated that the air-supported forming processes has been used to construct over 10,000+ structures, 2,500–3,000 structures across the globe in the last 40 years. Although significant, this number remains proportionately small compared to other structure types. Drawing from a database of over 1,000 structures, this paper outlines a research agenda of continued practical inquiry into market adoption.

Airports are utilitarian places and rarely seen as a work-of-art, but the concrete thin-shell structure of the TWA Terminal in Newark is the exception. It is a breathtaking structure considered a “shrine to minimalist design” from the “golden age of air travel.” Where most terminals from the 60’s are long since razed and rebuilt, the TWA terminal was restored and made the centerpiece of a new hotel.