Monolithic Constructors, Inc. — Who we are and what we do.
The Monolithic Research and Industrial Park, located in Italy, Texas, is home to Monolithic Constructors, Inc., Monolithic Dome Airform Manufacturing and our custom textile products manufacturing plant, as well as the headquarters of the Monolithic Dome Institute.
We are the original Monolithic Dome construction company.
The first Monolithic Dome ever constructed was built by David, Barry and Randy South in April of 1976 in the small town of Shelley, Idaho. David and Barry (Randy was too young at the time) had been insulating potato storages all over the northwest for years, so the choice for the first Monolithic Dome to be a 105-feet diameter by 35-feet tall potato storage seemed natural. They then patented the process and began marketing and building bulk storages in Idaho and up and down the Mississippi River.
In 1978, the brothers built the first Monolithic Dome House for their mother, Marjorie South. In 1979, David and his wife, Judy, built Cliffdome for their large family of 10 kids.
Rebecca South (along with the family dog, Pogo) leans over the railing of the the wraparound porch of Cliffdome in 1983. Cliffdome was built by David and Judy South in 1979, primarily to illustrate the Monolithic Dome’s potential as the perfect structure for a variety of uses. The family gave tours of their 8,000 square foot home regularly.
Cliffdome was a huge home with 8,000 square feet of living space and a 1,500-square-foot attic. Many thought David had built the large house because he had so many kids, but that was not the case. David built Cliffdome to show people that the Monolithic Dome could be used for any purpose.
David knew Monolithic Domes would be ideal for schools, churches, resorts, fire stations, municipal complexes, military compounds and more—not just storages and a few houses. To that end, Monolithic Constructors, Inc. was formed in 1980, and the three brothers started changing the world, one dome at a time.
Monolithic’s first dome office building (and shop pictured in back) in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Over the decades, Monolithic moved to the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex and has expanded into a manufacturing, construction and design firm. Monolithic continues to focus on research and construction projects that advance the state-of-the-art in dome building. We manufacture and sell Monolithic Dome construction equipment and Airforms. We offer our expertise and workforce to restoration and coating projects for existing dome owners. We also provide planning and design services.
Products and Services:
Planning, design and construction of Monolithic Domes comprise only one part of the products and services Monolithic provides. We also manufacture Airforms, custom textile products and dome-related construction equipment. In addition, we host and coordinate the Monolithic Dome Builders Workshops for the Monolithic Dome Institute.
We build Monolithic Domes.
Lincoln County Farm Center store in Chandler, Oklahoma. Monolithic built the first Monolithic Dome fertilizer storage here 40 years ago in 1978. This ranch store was constructed by Monolithic in 2015 and offers farming services, garden supplies, home décor, clothing, hardware, and much more.
Tatiana Crandall
Monolithic is a family legacy started by the South brothers, David, Barry and Randy. Eventually, Barry and Randy each founded their own dome-building businesses—both located in Idaho—while David kept control of Monolithic. All three organizations founded by the South brothers are still going strong, with sons, daughters and trusted associates at the helm. Monolithic is co-owned by David’s sons, Dave and Michael South, and his son-in-law, Gary Clark. Gary is a 40-year veteran of the dome building business, and Dave and Mike learned to build domes before they could drive. There is nothing dome-related that they haven’t seen, heard of or problem-solved.
Constructed in 1988 by Monolithic in Stockton, California, The California Ammonia Company’s massive atmosphere-controlled cold storage domes were an industry first. Each dome is 230-feet in diameter and 115-feet high and can hold 600 semi-truck loads of apples. David South and his son Dave pioneered (and wrote the operating software for) a rotating crane for automated loading and unloading of product. In the center of each dome sits a 100-foot-tall cooling tower that doubles as the pivot point for the large, computer-controlled cranes.
At Monolithic, we aim to be valuable team members in any project and to widely share our knowledge and experience with anyone wishing to learn. We believe in being hands-on and easy to work with. We like to get in the trenches and problem solve with our customers as partners in any effort. With our 40 years of experience in building Monolithic Domes, we have the capacity to build large-scale projects like schools and bulk storages, but we are still keen to build and design smaller projects like houses, retail shops and offices.
We offer planning, design and training services.
From left: The superintendent of Italy ISD in Italy, Texas discusses plans for the Gladiator Colosseum with David B. South and architect, Rick Crandall in 2001.
Monolithic offers both residential feasibility studies and commercial feasibility studies. Our experts work with the Monolithic Dome Institute to provide free evaluations for safe rooms and community shelters, storages, churches, sports facilities and schools. A free evaluation is a great first step toward a commercial feasibility study.
We have been doing Monolithic Dome residential and commercial evaluations and feasibility studies longer than anyone in the business. We are ready to work with any corporation or person looking to build a Monolithic Dome.
Training workshops
For anyone who desires to learn more about planning, design and construction of a Monolithic Dome, Monolithic hosts the semiannual Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop. This one-of-a-kind experience combines classroom instruction with hands-on training while constructing a real Monolithic Dome. Experts from the Monolithic Dome industry are always on hand during the workshops to answer your dome-related questions.
We manufacture Monolithic Dome Airforms and Specialty Fabric Forms
The inflation of the Airform for Cliffdome in Menan, Idaho. The 75-foot-diameter home was built in 1979 for the family of David B. and Judy Lynne South. Three of their ten kids — Nanette, Dave and Melinda — are shown here playing on the partially inflated fabric form.
In the 1980s, when Monolithic was still the only Monolithic Dome builder, we bought most of our Airforms from Precision Air Structures (PASCO) in Des Moines, Iowa. PASCO was owned by Jack Boyt, and he and David became lifelong friends. David bought PASCO from Jack in 1990 and moved the manufacturing plant to Texas. Soon after, David built Bruco, the famous Texas Caterpillar, which smiles out over six busy lanes of traffic on I-35 between Dallas and Waco. The caterpillar is now one of Texas’ most recognized landmarks.
From the beginning, Monolithic manufactured more than Airforms in the very busy caterpillar. We have built hundreds of methane digester covers, condensate ceilings, compost covers and more.
In fact, Monolithic can design and construct virtually any fabric form. Event planners, playground and park designers, athletic directors, fracking companies, wastewater treatment plants, agricultural research and development organizations and many more groups and people use architectural textiles. We can help any of these groups achieve their goals. We can work on developing prototypes or go directly into mass-producing any custom fabric form. We provide innovation and creativity — along with cutting-edge tech — in an approachable and dependable way.
Instead of outsourcing or traveling overseas to have a fabric form prototype constructed, our manufacturing plant is located right here in Italy, Texas. Our 14,000 square foot plant houses a state-of-the-art, laser-guided, 200-foot long RF welder that heats and seals fabric pieces together using high-frequency electromagnetic energy. Mike and Dave South have 50 years’ worth of combined experience pioneering some of the world’s most complicated fabric form architecture. Yet, we are a small enough company to give each one of our customers our full attention.
In an interview with Mike South, he said,
We like to get our hands dirty and have our guys on-site for installations, prep work and problem-solving. We work best when our customers see us as true partners — working together toward their project’s success.
We manufacture Monolithic Dome construction-related equipment.
Monolithic’s Portable Concrete Mixer does the heavy lifting for you. It is an attachment for a skid-steer or other front-end loader, so it is totally mobile. And it’s self-loading, so sand and gravel do not need to be hand shoveled. It mixes extremely quickly and is easy to maintain.
Monolithic has developed and perfected a line of construction equipment we use every day to build Monolithic Domes. Perhaps the most versatile of these is our concrete mixer. We also offer inflators, concrete pumps, scaffolding, concrete additives, Airform primer, airlock kits and the Paxis rotating scaffold base.
We offer lots of other related services.
In addition to taking on full-scale Monolithic Dome construction projects and fabric form manufacturing, we also offer help with any part of the construction process. These services include, but are not limited to:
- repair and restoration of Monolithic Domes or other concrete domes
- coatings and exterior covering application and consulting
- constructing foundations
- overseeing Airform inflations
- applying polyurethane foam
- placing rebar
- window and door buck installation
- spraying shotcrete
- interior framing and drywall
- interior finishing
- window and door installation
At Monolithic, we also provide various local services:
- market, engineer and construct concrete fences and retaining walls
- repair concrete, brick or wood walls
- renovate conventional buildings using Monolithic technology
- reinforce and repair existing Monolithic Domes
- build custom, disaster-resistant gazebos for your backyard oasis
- make short work of any general shotcrete project—including swimming pools or custom zoo habitats
- provide on-site construction management and project supervision
- send expert crews to spray polyurethane foam for conventional and dome construction projects, including commercial roofing, residential insulation, etc.
Stop in and see us!
The Monolithic Research Park, located in Italy, Texas, is home to our construction offices, the Monolithic Dome Builders Workshop facilities, the Airform and textile manufacturing plant and equipment development and manufacturing shops, and the Monolithic Dome Institute’s headquarters and research park. Call today to schedule a tour! (972) 483-7423.