About Us
If you’re looking for architecture that’s uniquely designed and reliably made, you’ve come to the right place. Here at McCarty Domes Inc., our team creates one-of-a-kind dome structures for residential and commercial clients throughout the US and Canada. Inspired by Gerald McCarty's decision to construct a dome for his personal home, Gerald used his architectural experience to write the two original patents we use today. From design to delivery, we’re here to provide you with exceptional service and breathtaking results.
One of the most remarkable engineering aspects surrounding the dome structure is the resolve of horizontal and vertical reactive forces at the tension ring. We generally see the project EOR matching the diameter of dome size with a ring for bearing. This bearing point whereby both frames meet is typically field welded. Lagged or clear bolting has been an option for smaller domes such as City Centers in Santa Barbara, CA or Sacramento, CA. The dome for a 68 ft Las Vegas retail used lags since the bearing ring was wood.
The architect of record closely monitors how the MDI dome meets the established criteria in all respects. The design group at MDI remains in constant discussion with the architect and consulting engineer during the design phase. This is critical in the confidence needed and the MDI dome moving forward. Sometimes the A/E design carries from column/support, one to the next or in a rare instance a cantilever loading. This is easily programmable in a structural resolve at time of DD’s. The benefit to using our segmented dome structure are the adjustments we can make in steel rib count and size.
Being a national company, our design group at MDI is bound by the International Building Code to resolve a given design criteria for each jurisdiction across the continent.
As you can imagine there are differences in wind, seismic activity, snow load, and snow shedding. There is the dome size, height, weight and invariably the dead load of its construction, both interior and exterior loading. Final finishes are generally understood as 10-20 lbs. per sq/ft additional load. McCarty Domes Inc. has regularly met 90-160 mph wind load and in the case of FEMA, 160 mph possibly increasing to 200 mph.