Not since the massive red barn that became the focal point of the Moon Valley Ranch was built over a half century ago has Dallas County experienced such buzz. Now its the School of Metaphysics who owns the land and is constructing buildings that bring a new kind of architecture to this part of the world.

Having heard College Chancellor Daniel Condron talk about the prospective dome, Dallas County Department of Health officer Bob Werner recently visited the construction site. Both men serve on the Board of the Dallas County Betterment Association.

"We’d thought about waiting until the dome was complete before having an open house," Condron said. "When Bob mentioned a couple of the jokes floating around town, we realized local interest is high and it’s time to separate fact from fiction."

The SOM dome may be the first in southwest Missouri but if you travel north of Kansas City you will find a four-dome complex in Pattonsburg, Missouri, the new public school building for K-12. The truth is domes now serve as churches, schools, sporting facilities, theaters, homes, even supermarkets and water tanks in 43 states and many foreign countries.

The mixture of physics, geometry, and technology that goes into a dome makes it a natural form for the headquarters of an organization that teaches applied metaphysics. It’s been twenty years since the School of Metaphysics chose Dallas County as the site to build a college. In all that time the dream has remained the same, passed on from teacher to student literally around the world. "Eventually the main building will be a large pyramidical structure surrounded by domes which will house students," Condron says.

To build the first campus building, the School’s board of governors contracted the Monolithic Dome Institute (MDI) located in a town not much bigger than Windyville: Italy, Texas. The sale of property owned by the School and located north of Buffalo on Hwy. 73 freed funds to be invested in construction. MDI has been building domes almost as long as the School has been teaching life skills like self respect, concentration, memory, and listening.

"For years we had imaged the dome as geodesic domes, which by the way were what got MDI President David South started in this direction years ago," Condron says. "We may yet use that form, but what the monolithic dome can teach is much farther reaching. Introducing progressive, more efficient ways to live is part of what we teach at the School of Metaphysics."

"Practically speaking, we found out domes cost about the same as a similar structure to build and a small fraction of the cost to live in. They are so fuel efficient that an entire dome can be heated with one fireplace or cooled with one window air conditioner so fuel costs are minimal."

Since the early 70s, domes have been built on every continent. Domes have withstood tornadoes and hurricanes, and are for the most part maintenance free. They are the strongest, most energy efficient fire safe structure built which is probably why the most surviving structures of any size dating from the Roman Empire were rock domes.

Head engirneer John Pregowski, who came from Poland to build SOM’s dome, has been building them for 15 years. This year he built 100 domes in Asia, Africa, North and South America.

SOM’s dome is 60 feet in diameter and rises to 25 feet at its highest point. It has a unique style with the large elliptical opening on the south side which will be the entryway on ground level and extend into windows for the second floor. "Designs and uses for domes are limited only by your imagination," said Tad Messenger, a faculty member organizing construction. "The first floor will be divided into seven rooms for office and classroom space, with a large 26 foot diameter open area in the center. The second floor will sustain the full dome effect, being one open space,"

Some Dallas Country residents haven’t understood the measured pace of the building. "When we first bought this land, they expected something like SMSU to spring up overnight," Messenger said. "When you function soley on donations, it takes some planning and time to undertake something this big. It’s amazing to be a part of something like this."

The dome literally rose from the prepared foundation just days after Thanksgiving. Using what is called an air form, it took less than an hour for the form to be pumped full of forced air, the first stage of construction. Over the next few days layers of urethane form were sprayed into place. Next came steel reinforcement in the form of rebar. After the electrical conduit was put in place, four layers of shotcrete were sprayed to complete the shell which is now ready for interior design and landscaping. The entire process was completed before Christmas.

"It’s the beginning of a dream hundreds of people have put energy into it for years," said Messenger, recalling the 'Penny Day' in 1987 when students brought over 700,000 pennies they had saved over the years to O’Bannon Bank to make the final payment on the property where the dome is now being built. Messenger studied with the school in Kansas City in the 80s, spent the 90s back home in New York state, and returned a few years ago for the express purpose of helping to build the College of Metaphysics.

"We welcome interest in this kind of innovative construction, and hope others want to pursue it," Daniel Condron said. "For this dome we were able to use local resources for everything but the actually shell construction. We hope with future structures to draw upon skills closer to home for the complete process."

For more information about the dome, MDI, or the School of Metaphysics, call 417-345-8411.