A Geodesic Dome for the Studio!
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​Los Angeles Muralist
and Artist
​Roberto Quintana
​(de Foster) WFA, 
and
Susan Foster
(de Quintana)
Build a 5V, 5/8 
​'Sonostar'
​Megadome
Picture

​Roberto Quintana WFA, the well-known and much-appreciated artist in Los Angeles, California, and his beloved wife, Susan, have a beautiful home with his art studio and her garden. They also have two kitties, Emma and Paolo, who wanted a safe space in the back yard. ​This is their dome building story.​
We agreed that a dome would make a perfect “kitty-ary”
and would be welcoming to human friends as well. 
​Researching various solutions on the Internet,
​Roberto came upon Sonostar domes.
​
We traveled to Orange County to visit the Sonostar workshop in Santa Ana. ​We checked out all the Sonostar domes…so many that there were domes within domes!...
​
 …and a generous 26′ 4V dome with a parachute cover, which the Sonostar folks ​use as a cozy and comfortable “break room.”
​
Inside the workshop, we met Nathan, the staff associate who puts the dome kits together. The Sonostar shop has a lot of precision equipment designed to make each dome-kit fit together perfectly.
​
Nathan guides the saw to cut the PVC struts in various lengths.
He then uses the two drill presses to drill bolt holes and to ensure that the holes in ​the struts, and the holes in the hubs, are precisely aligned at the same angle.
​
 We decided on a 25′ diameter 5V Megadome
that uses 1′′ furniture-grade (UV-protected) PVC struts and Sonostar's ​specially designed hubs. ("V" stands for frequency; the higher the frequency, the more triangles in the finished dome, which makes the dome rounder and stronger.)
​

Nathan packaged the dome kits so efficiently that all the materials necessary to build a 25′ structure could easily fit into Roberto’s "Studio-on Wheels" artist's van, ​with room to spare!
​

The first order of business when we got home was to put together
an A-Team of Seasoned Geodesic Dome Builders. We settled on well-intentioned friends and neighbors, including  a planetary spectroscopy scientist, engineers, an astrophysicist and his precocious young son, a Caltech geologist grad student, an astronaut, and a former Mars Rover driver. No seasoned geodesic dome builder in sight, but we think we’re ready to go.
​
We had decided on the 5V, 5/8 Megadome because we wanted to build the dome over a bi-level site, between the studio and the house, with a 2′ retaining wall. The 5V, 5/8 configuration allowed us to span the 2′ step down and take the dome up to the door. The plan was for kitties and humans both to be able to walk
from the house right out into the dome.
​
As aging hippies, we had long admired R. Buckminster Fuller
and The Whole Earth Catalog. Roberto dug out an old Domebook for inspiration ​and started to prep for dome assembly.

We organized all the pieces and pre-assembled what we could
before we got started on the dome raising.

Roberto set up scaffolding and laid out the base according to
Sonostar’s easy-to-understand, color-coded building instructions.

We were now ready to invite in the dome-raising team
to start assembling the Base row.
​
Roberto extended the dome-sphere below the retaining wall, using the struts and hubs he did not need from the door opening.
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The team worked together beautifully, following the Sonostar instruction map
​ ​and double checking each other’s work.
By the fourth row, everyone was up on ladders and scaffolding.
​
The hubs and struts for the first four rows went together very easily, 
​with the stainless steel nuts and bolts holding the PVC struts into the Sonostar hubs.

The clean design of the Sonostar's hubs is very efficient
and quite handsome!
​
Installation was also made easier with a variety of ladder sizes...
​
...and Roberto’s mural-painting scaffolding.
​
As we got higher, the dome raising team began to feel the self-supporting  
​'tensegrity' forces of the dome, and our bi-level (uneven) base made it more and more difficult to fit the struts into the hubs!
​
But thanks to the flexibility of the PVC, a little perseverance, a little silicone-spray, a strap-wrench, and the creative use of the ratcheting mechanism of Roberto's ladder tie-downs, we were able to prevail.
​
When we reached the apex of the dome structure we realized that by eliminating the final pentagon, we were left with an enchanting five-pointed star “oculus”…
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… for our “Sono-STAR-dome”!
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We had explored various options for keeping the dome “open air” and creating ​a safe space for our kitties.
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We decided on a 1.75′′ sports barrier netting from Cascade Nets to keep our cats in and large critters out, while allowing small birds and bees and butterflies to enjoy the fresh-air space with us.
​
 Creating three “doors” into the space from the yard was simply a matter of strategically removing a few struts and hubs.
​
 The Now-Seasoned Geodesic Dome Building Team made short work of installing the square netting over the oval dome.
​
Emma was the first to venture out, cautious but curious,
to explore her new DOME-icile.
​
 Paolo likes being able to go outside—finally!—but he wants to know: Where are all the birds? Shouldn't there be BIRDS out here?! Little did he realize that several finches perched happily in the plum tree right behind him, watching his every move.
 And now we can all enjoy our fully netted garden dome accessible from the house, ready for landscaping, planting, kitty romping, morning coffee, ​and afternoon garden parties. We are very impressed with Sonostar’s hub-design, materials, and service.
We highly recommend them for your next dome project.
Thank you, Jon Dietz and the Sonostar Team.
Bucky would be proud!
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Links:

Buckminster Fuller: Whole Earth Catalog and Domebook: Suppliers—Sonostar and Cascade Nets:
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