Bucky Dome Rehabilitation Will Start in the Spring

Organizers say long-awaited restoration efforts will begin this spring on the landmark geodesic dome home the late R. Buckminster Fuller built in Carbondale while he was teaching at Southern Illinois University.

The 11-year-old RBF Dome Not for Profit group says recent donations will enable organizers to seek construction bids for the $300,000 project. Some $125,000 of that money came from a national trust for historic preservation.

Fuller built and lived in the dome for a number of years while he was a professor in the university's design department.

The restoration group intends to open the home as a museum and eventually create a learning and interpretive center in Fuller's name, along with a residency program for artists and scholars.