Frederick L. Crandall, AIA

Rick in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia.

Rick Crandall helps a local father erect a temporary shelter in Indonesia in 2006. Crandall was the lead architect for a Domes For The World project that culminated in the reconstruction of a small village on the Bantul Plain of Java.

Rebecca South / Monolithic Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Frederick L. “Rick” Crandall, Architect, is the founder and owner of Crandall Designs. He sketched his first Monolithic Dome project in 1995, a sports center in the Payson School District in Payson, Arizona. Since then, he has participated in the planning of more than 250 completed projects with over 400 Monolithic Domes.

Crandall received his Bachelor of Arts in education and taught high school and college students. In 1974, he began working full-time, creating architectural illustrations. In 1995, he started his first architectural firm, which ultimately led to the creation of the Crandall Design Group in Mesa, AZ, with five architects serving every US state and numerous other countries.

Crandall has designed many dome homes, including Chateau de Lumiere, a home he shared with his wife of 52 years, Melody. He and his wife have four daughters (Laurel Oliver, Christianna Clark, Emily Hughes, and Eva Carpenter) and four sons (Eric, Kevin, Dale, and Kendrick). They have 39 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Melody, whom he had married on a Valentine’s Day, passed in 2020.

Crandall wrote Design for Dome Homes and Domes for Tomorrow: A Sketchbook of Monolithic Concrete Domes, Volumes I and II, with sample floor plans and architectural drawings for office buildings, residential units, aircraft hangars, and schools.

Rick is a voting member of the ACI-ASCE 334 committee on concrete shell design and construction and has advised other professional firms in radial design principles, cost projections, and feasibility studies in several fields.