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More Buyers Want a Dome Home
From Oregon to North Carolina, home buyers are increasingly opting for residences shaped like geodesic domes. The structures, which first caught the world's attention in the 1950s, quickly earned the respect of environmentalists
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who laud their energy efficiency and admire the way they squeeze the maximum amount of space out of the least amount of material.
The concept was embraced by the youthful hippie generation in the 1970s, when a small and spare unit could be erected for less than $1,000. But today's versions are largely the pet projects of boomers who pump a million dollars or more into building expansive domes of 10,000 square feet or bigger in tony neighborhoods.
"The domes have gotten bigger and more expensive as people's incomes expanded," says Dennis Johnson, founder of North Branch, Minn.-based Natural Spaces Domes, which has seen its clientele quadruple over the past decade to about 200 a year.
Dome customers
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like buyers of conventional homes
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also want custom kitchens, finished basements, home offices, and all of the other extras, says Robert Singer of Berkeley, Calif.-based dome manufacturer Timberline Geodesics. Many also prefer traditional touches such as dormer windows, carriage lamps, and cedar shingles.
While residential domes have broken into the upscale property market, buyers with smaller incomes still have plenty of options, too. Oregon Dome, for example, is building a suburban community of dome homes in Veneta, Ore., that will sell for roughly $200,000 each. Another all-dome development is being brought to Asheville, N.C., by Florida-based American Ingenuity, which specializes in energy-efficient domes.
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