This geodesic dome dates from 1962 and the credited architects are Weaver and Drover.

This is a panel dome, as opposed to a strut dome. As a matter of fact, the roof is exactly the same low-slung aluminum panel structure that appears in a photograph in Buckminster Fuller's "Ideas and Integrities" captioned 'Kaiser dome over a Lutheran church in Florida'.

Kaiser, like Kaiser Wilhelm?

No.

 

"Kaiser" as in Kaiser Aluminum, like Kaiser Permanente, like Kaiser Liberty Ships, as in Kaiser-Frazer, all attributable to the American industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, who licensed the geodesic dome from Buckmisnter Fuller. Starting in the mid-1950s Kaiser mass-produced panel domes out of his Oakland, California aluminum works, not because they were stylish and futuristic and cool, necessarily, but because they were an efficient means to enclose space.

The first one went up in Kaiser's Hawaiian Village development in Waikiki in 1957 within a matter of 22 hours. Kaiser flew out for the construction but it was already finished by the time he arrived. It's 145 feet in diameter. Martin Denny started his bird-call-lounge-music career at the Hawaiian Village and recorded his first big album, "Exotica", in the dome to take advantage of the echo.

 

By the end of 1958 Kaiser had completed eight large pre-fab panel domes, one of which is the Casa Manana in Fort Worth (right across the street from Louis Kahn's Kimbell Museum, which is funny), one of which is the recently renovated Gold Dome in Oklahoma City, and one of which is the former Valley National Bank bank in Tempe Arizona you're looking at. And one of which, I guess, was a Lutheran church in Florida.

(For a Fuller explanation of the geodesic dome, see this page about the Climatron in St. Louis.)

In a recent interview, former Weaver and Drover designer Frank Henry said he worked on this building briefly, that the original configuration included space that the bank rented out, and the idea of using the geodesic dome came from Valley National Bank. Not only because it was stylish and futuristic and cool, but because it was an efficient means to build a branch bank, create a free-span space inside and a distinctive profile outside, visible from the street.

According to a June 20, 1962 VNB publicity release:

"The golden dome on the Valley National Bank's new Tempe Office rises three-quarters of an inch during heat of the day, contracting again in the cooling night hours.

Luminous ceiling above the 2600 square foot lobby is hung with thousands of wafer-thin aluminum leaves - each turned to a precise angle.

Special lighting protection for the metal-roof structure was included in specifications by architects Weaver & Drover.

These are among intriguing facts about Valley Bank's new building disclosed by manager James G. Gardner, as he checked last-minute details for the bank's open house this weekend."

 

"...Despite its graceful, light appearance, Valley Bank's dome weighs several tons and possesses impressive structural strength. In tests, geodesic designs have supported more than 100 pounds per square foot and withstood hurricane winds of 125 miles per hour.

In erecting the dome, more than 100 pre-shaped panels were fastened together with special bolts in a series of ever-widening circles around a central tower. The roof was lifted slightly as each new ring of panels was added. When the entire dome was assembled, it was lowered into place onto permanent supports and the tower removed.

A critical factor in the dome's erection was accuracy in planning and placing the bearing points, which hold full weight of the 90-foot span. These and concrete arches between were cast in place with custom-built forms."

 

"...Self-supporting feature of geodesic construction eliminated need for support columns or weight-bearing walls inside the bank. All walls in the building are curtain walls - except for the vault, which is virtually a separate building in itself. Constructed blockhouse fashion, the vault has 12-inch thick reinforced concrete walls, floor and ceiling.

Between support piers, eyebrow-shaped arches curve to a height of 13 feet. Spaces here are enclosed with native stone, porcelain and quarter-inch thick glare-reducing glass.

The "leaf light" ceiling creates an ever-changing aspect of color, texture and pattern when traversed by the eye. It consists of 23,400 aluminum leaves, alternating gold and white, each set at right angles to its neighbor. The vertically-hung leaves filter light from a source above."

 

 

And from June 16, 1964:

"Valley residents will have a preview of Arizona's first banking-by-television installation during the next few weeks at the Valley National Bank in Tempe.

The bank is beginning construction work to install two television drive-in windows, and while this is underway the specially-made units will be displayed in the bank lobby, beginning Friday.

Both will be operational - with the TV cameras and viewing screens working.

'Visitors will be able to see what television banking will be like - and at the same time see themselves on television,' VNB manager Jim Gardner said."

The most amusing problem are the "Cards of Death". The 1962 press release quoted above suggested (to me) a dazzling mobile of diffused light in the curved interior cavity of the dome. The reality is less glamorous. The ceiling is flat, and is hung with 23,400 cards at right angles to each other. They look exactly like employee badges. They're metal. They do indeed reflect / refract / diffuse the flourescent lights above them, but they.... fall down unpredictably and make people jumpy. And to change those flourescent bulbs is quite an operation.

Then again, the thing is 40 years old. If you don't have any problems by the time you're forty, then, you're.... probably grooming yourself for public office.

Along with the other six former-Valley-National-Bank branch buildings on this website, this building has impeccable historic credentials relative to the VNB, Walter Bimson, and his role in Phoenix history.

If its association with Bimson is not enough, it's also an engineering landmark.

The building is one of a decreasing number of original geodesic domes in the United States. These last domes stand as the tangible legacy of Buckminster Fuller, Mr. Fuller always associated with a lot of dreamers and kooks, and ridiculed at length by the AIA and mainstream academics, occasionally with some justification.

But the geodesic dome was, and is, a completely revolutionary construction technique and a legitimate advance-of-western-civilization. No kidding. The underlying principle, "tensegrity", has been adopted for an increasing number of buildings through the 1980s and 1990s as the engineering profession catches up to Fuller, notably the roof of the Burton Barr library, but is still not fully understood or exploited. This isn't the past you're looking at, it's the future.

When the Gold Dome in Oklahoma City of similar vintage was threatened with destruction by Bank One in 2002, there was quite a stir, and it made the National Trust for Historic Preservation 11-Most-Endangered List. That dome has been saved by a local orthodondist named Dr. Irene Lam, working with Bank One, who turned out to be sympathetic to the cause.

You hate to see such a distinctive, irreplacable building lost because of a lack of imagination.

 

Note: According to Jim McPherson of the Arizona Preservation Foundation, a source within the University has the following comment on the building, as of June 2006:

"The University has thoroughly looked into this and it is not practical or cost effective (extremely high cost) to try to relocate this structure or work it into development. The University has, and continues to work with the State Historic Preservation Office to document the building. Wish I had better news for you."

The building is not yet fifty years old and therefore is not eligible for protection (which is kind of dumb). To take action to save this structure, see this page on Alison King's Modern Phoenix website.

....Sadly, on Saturday February 10, Arizona State University removed the gold dome roof of this building with a crane, set it aside for possible future use, and immediate bulldozed the rest of the structure. Matthew King's photos of the destruction can be found here. Below are three more interior photos. Damn shame.