2,400 SF Home Of The Future Of The 1980s Reclaimed By The Sea Off Marco Island, FL

[hatrack]

This dome home off Marco Island, Fla., was designed in the 1980s to confront the environmental challenges of the future. Its creators failed to factor in sea-level rise. Andy Morffew/Flickr

Bob and Margaret Lee were considered Florida futurists in 1980 when they built one of the most unusual houses in Collier County, a geodesic "dome home" on the tip of Marco Island along the Gulf Coast. The 2,400-square-foot home was an architectural and engineering marvel, equipped with solar panels and rainwater cisterns, painted white to reflect the sun, and built strong enough to withstand the worst the sea could deliver. The sea won anyway.

Today, the "Cape Romano dome home" is an ocean ruin, a white tomb in a sea of green water. Four of its six geodesic domes rise above the water. Some are tagged with graffiti; others are stained by pelican excrement. The Lees left after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Few good things have happened to the property since.

At its core, the submerged home is a monument to climate change, the effects of which are being hard felt in southwest Florida as hurricanes, sea-level rise and daily wave action scour away the state's fragile coastline. "This is a clear sign of things to come, particularly in low-lying areas that are not protected," said Jayantha Obeysekera, research professor and director of the Sea Level Solutions Center at Florida International University. "It demonstrates the power of the ocean, and I think it's a very telling example of how climate change and sea-level rise will affect us in the future."

Future storms, combined with a projected 1- to 2-foot rise in sea level over the next several decades, will eventually collapse the home onto the seafloor, experts say. In the interim, regulators are trying to figure out what to do with its concrete skeleton and protruding white domes that look like floating mushrooms.

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https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061578607

[Vogon_Glory]

1. I suspect that the fish will like it

At the risk of angering certain environmental purists, I note that sunken subway cars, deliberately-sunken ships, and old offshore oil drilling platforms provide habitat for reef and pelagic fish.

[Mike 03]

2. Interesting.

In Ian Urbina's book The Outlaw Ocean there's a discussion late in the book about what to do with decommissioned offshore oil rigs and some environmentalists favor sinking them for just the reason you set forth. A lot of carbon emission is involved in dismantling and removing them. Another idea is to turn them into "resorts" or repurposing them as "floating maximum security prisons" or in some other way. At first I hated the idea of sinking them until I read the arguments for doing so. I had no idea they could be useful for sea life!

[cab67]

5. Migratory birds also use oil platforms.

Especially those crossing the Gulf of Mexico. Rig workers routinely set up feeding stations.

[CousinIT]

3. Builder's daughter made video of the interior...

Lots more photos and videos here: https://www.offgridquest.com/abandoned/cape-romano-dome-home

[Farmer-Rick]

4. Nice home while it lasted

Why do the rich always want to build right up against the ocean?

I guess being in the Navy for over 20 years, I just don't get the thrill of the beach.

[Marthe48]

6. I went there on vacation in May this year

My daughters treated me to a sunset tour with a company called Dreamlander Tours. This area of Florida is called 10000 Islands and when we toured, we went through an area of shallow coastal waters dotted with islands that formed around mangrove roots. Our guide told us that when the Dome House was built, the man got special permission to cut a bunch of the mangrove trees out of the way. The home was originally built on the tip of the island. Well, the roots of those trees he cut down was what held the island together and it didn't take long for the winds, tides and hurricanes to take the land. So we saw the bony skeleton of the Dome Home.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. "Geodesic" domes ? I dunno, those just look like concrete shells to me.

The positioning of the windows looks like conventional architecture, not what would be 'natural' to a geodesic structure:



Maybe not as 'futuristic' as intended ? Or ironically, more so ?