Back in the US - Buckminster Fuller Fly’s Eye Dome

The 50-Foot Fly’s Eye Dome was designed and constructed by R. Buckminster Fuller, and restored by Carlson Arts with engineering by PECK Structural. Visit our project page for details on the engineering and restoration. It was recently acquired by Crystal Bridges and is on display at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Fuller conceived the Fly's Eye Dome with its cylindrical openings as an 'autonomous dwelling machine'. He planned to make the modular structure into inexpensive, portable housing. With a water collection system and solar panels in some openings, it would be entirely off-grid. The 50-Foot Fly’s Eye Dome was constructed around 1980 and erected and exhibited at the 1981 Los Angeles Bicentennial. In 2016 the structure was painstakingly restored by architectural historian Robert Rubin, who exhibited the dome in France and other venues in Europe. The current owner has hired Martin and Martin Engineers of Bentonville, to study ways of modifying the dome to allow for larger entry portals.

Now installed on Crystal Bridges’ north lawn, Fuller’s Fly’s Eye Dome is open for public viewing at no cost from dawn until dusk.

PECK Provides Structural Design for the Restoration of Another Historic Mid-Century Modern Home

CM Peck returns to the hills above Brentwood, California to work on another historic home. After having worked on the Hamma House by A. Quincy Jones & Whitney Smith in 2003, we are returning to the hills to restore the lower level of the Gould Lafetra House by Ray Kappe.

We are providing structural design to repair the fire damaged Glue-Lam beam cantilevers.