In the winter of 1986-87 I had the opportunity to build a woodshed for some friends of mine in East Montpelier, VT. My earlier constructions of 18' diameter plydomes (1/2 and 3/4 spheres) in 1981 had given me confidence in the method. I had been working empirically, building models of springy cardboard and measuring the angles. My first domes were not as round as they should have been, but were surprisingly strong.

This 24' dome was a faithful copy of one I saw in The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller. I had carefully equalized the angles on my model to achieve the proper shape. It is a 2v hemisphere. A short time after the the plywood parts were all assembled, 10" of wet snow fell on the dome with disastrous results. Bucky's plydome had a base that supported the entire perimeter of his dome, and sturdy window frames. Mine was on posts and had no framing whatsoever when the snow caved it in. It was a deeply disturbing experience. I paid my friends for the materials, cleaned up the site and stacked the broken pieces of plywood in my garage.