The Mystery of Cape Romano's Dome House

I arrived at Cape Romano fascinated by the stories of a strange and unique structure called the Dome House. As soon as I started collecting data, I understood why it was so interesting. This structure was built in 1980 by a retired oil producer and his wife as a vacation home. They wanted to build something that could resist hurricanes and flooding and found inspiration in the Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome design. The dome house has 3 look-alike buildings and it used to have four. However, one of the domes partially collapsed during Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and even though the owners tried to fix it, it eventually sunk into the ocean. The other three domes still stand, but they are abandoned and covered in graffiti. Eventually, they will share the same doomed fate as the fourth dome and sink into the ocean as well. At some point, the Dome House was not considered aesthetically pleasing and therefore hazardous to real estate values and declared a nuisance by Collier County officials in 1992. Collier County made efforts to condemn it through legal actions and fines that forced the original owner to abandon it. Later ownership unknown to me. This well-engineered unique structure combined with its peculiar fate marks it worthy of sightseeing for those who appreciate unconventional architecture and profound human stories.