Bay Area-Designed Home Withstands Ivan's Punch

Television crews in building in Pensacola, Fla., slept soundly during hurricane

By Jim Welte - MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL

A Pensacola Beach, Fla., dome home designed by Marin County architect Jonathan Zimmerman passed the Hurricane Ivan test Thursday, allowing network news crews holed up in the home to sleep soundly through the worst part of the devastating storm.

Most of the homes and buildings around it on the coast of the Florida panhandle, however, did not fare nearly as well.

"Eighty percent of the structures around us are beyond repair," said Mark Sigler, who owns the home and stayed in it Wednesday night along with television crews from ABC News and NBC Nightly News.

"But it was nice and quiet inside the home," Sigler said. "At the point the storm was at its strongest, it was just after midnight, and we were all pretty tired, so we just went to sleep and slept right through it."

NBC News correspondent Kerry Sanders, who stayed in the home Wednesday night with his camera crew, complimented Zimmerman, who lives in Fairfax, for designing a structure that could withstand such a powerful storm.

In an e-mail message, Sanders said the dome home gave him and his crew the rare chance to stay in Pensacola Beach -- now a virtual island as most of the access roads to it have flooded or collapsed -- during the storm.

	From left, NBC cameraman Craig White, home owner Mark Sigler, NBC Correspondent Kerry Sanders, and NBC sound engineer Chuck Stewart the morning after Hurricane Ivan. Photo: PensacolaNewsJournal

"Our payoff, of course, is to be able to show the scene now," he wrote. "The barrier island is closed, so the only way to show it is to be here already. We were able to do live reports in near-100 mph winds.This morning we had scrambled eggs on a camping stove."

The Siglers' home, which was surrounded by water by early Thursday, did suffer minor damage, but that was part of the plan, Zimmerman said. External stairs were designed to break away easily from the home and prevent any damage to the structure itself, and the stairs did just that, he said.

"It performed exactly like it was supposed to," he said. "The shape of the house was designed to allow the water to literally wash around it, rather than knock it down, which is what happened."

As a result of the extensive media coverage, television crews from several broadcast channels flocked to the home in the days leading up to Ivan's arrival in Pensacola Beach.

Zimmerman likely will not have much trouble finding takers for his dome homes. He already has received telephone calls from people in the Caribbean, Hawaii and England to build similar homes for them.

"But I'm still sorry it happened," he said. "I would much rather remain unknown than for all these other people to have their lives hurt like this."

Zimmerman praised Mark and Valerie Sigler for having the courage to pay for and build the unique home.

The dome-shaped home, made of steel-reinforced concrete and able to withstand winds up to 300 mph and a direct hit from a hurricane, was built with the help of a $245,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which certified the design as having met its lofty weather-resistant standards.

"You gotta take your hat off to Mark Sigler," he said. "My reputation was at risk, but his life and livelihood were at risk. I was sitting here, comfortably ensconced in Fairfax, concerned, but his life was on the line."

Zimmerman said he hopes people understand the value of dome-shaped architecture in areas of extreme climate. He is currently working on a dome home for a homeowner in Anchorage, Alaska, whose land is in an avalanche zone.

Zimmerman's dome-shaped design should allow an avalanche to roll right over it, he said.

"This is how you deal with extreme climates," he said. "Conventional buildings are not going to do it. This should become the standard."

Zimmerman said he was well aware that he was getting his 15 minutes of fame.

"A man who toots his own horn plays a tune that nobody wants to hear," he said.

But he said he was hopeful that the dome's home survival of the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Ivan provides a vivid reminder to architects, contractors and builders in areas of extreme climates.

"We need more people who are qualified to design these kinds of building and more people who are qualified to build them," he said.

"These are the kinds of structures that should be used in commercial buildings for sanctuary. Instead of these mass evacuations you see all the time, if you know you can go into a place where you're going to be safe, that's a better strategy. We are a crisis reactive society and it takes something like this for people to sit up and take notice."