Monolithic Dome Office Rendering — This Monolithic Dome office building is a magnificent structure, offering both energy efficiency and an affordable price tag.

Monolithic Dome Office Rendering — This Monolithic Dome office building is a magnificent structure, offering both energy efficiency and an affordable price tag. (Leland A. Gray Architects)


The Cylindrical, High Performance Monolithic Office Building

Efficient and Grand

A Monolithic Dome is often used in its most economical configuration as part of a sphere. But sometimes the customer wants something more grand.

The images included with this article are of a beautiful and grand office complex. They illustrate a two-story office building, that could easily be designed as a twenty-story.

Offices around the perimeter are on a vertical stemwall that has all the glass you may desire. Result: Each perimeter office has a view of the street and a view of the large, interior atrium.

The hat rim around the building’s perimeter is designed to keep rain off the sidewalk level below and is supported by slender columns that add beautiful architectural detail to the building.

Imagine this office building enhanced with plenty of fine wood trim, brass hand rails and marble floors. Do you get a sense of what a beautiful facility this could be?

Best of all, you still get the energy efficiency of the Monolithic Dome. Obviously, there is some heat loss from the windows but not as much as one might think. Conduction, the heat loss by contact, is far more in a structure’s roof and/or ceiling than in its walls. The Monolithic Dome that spans the interior remains intact and performs as a super-insulated roof and thermal battery to even out the heating and cooling loads.

A Monolithic Dome office building is a magnificent building offering energy efficiency and an affordable price tag.

Hat Rim — The “hat rim” around the entire perimeter of the building is designed to keep rain off the sidewalk level below and is supported by beautiful slender columns that add beautiful architectural detail to the building.

Hat Rim — The “hat rim” around the entire perimeter of the building is designed to keep rain off the sidewalk level below and is supported by beautiful slender columns that add beautiful architectural detail to the building. (Leland A. Gray Architects)

Two-story Office — This two-story office building could easily be designed as a twenty-story.

Two-story Office — This two-story office building could easily be designed as a twenty-story. (Leland A. Gray Architects)