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.

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.

From the video: “We are at Bruco in Italy, Texas, taking a look inside an Airform that will soon be folded up and shipped for a frac sand storage silo. This Airform measures 114 feet in diameter, 57 feet tall, and has a 76-foot stemwall. It is under light inflation right now, so we can check the seams before they are packed and sent to the jobsite. It is always impressive to stand inside and see the scale of these projects.”

We are starting up the Monolithic Forum—an online discussion board for Monolithic Dome enthusiasts. This is an early invitation for our Roundup subscribers to try it out! Maybe post a picture of a “dome in the wild,” or start a thread about what you’d like to see us do for our next video, or post a technical question for our experts. Please help us build this new platform as an informative, fun, and helpful place.