Kickapoo Community Childcare Center
The Kickapoo Community Childcare Center in McLoud, Oklahoma chose a Monolithic Dome for their new daycare building because they didn’t want the children to be scared and have to run to a tornado shelter every time a tornado watch is issued.
The reception area creates a central hub from which all nine classrooms can be monitored. Artwork depicting tribal clans of the Kickapoo keep watch.
The Kickapoo Community Childcare Center is a nearly 13,000-square-foot Monolithic Dome just over 30 minutes east of Oklahoma City. About 100 children (babies to tweens) attend day care or after school programs in the dome. The staff at Kickapoo was motivated to build a Monolithic Dome child care center that could double as a storm shelter because they wanted to protect the kids not only from the physical dangers of the many tornados that menace Oklahoma every year, but from the fear they felt each time they had to be stop their classes and run to a secondary tornado shelter.
The 128-foot-diameter (39 m) Monolithic Dome is a hoop dome built with a Transition-Ring Airform (TRAM) consisting of an inflated vertical wall with a dome on top. The dome is 25.5 feet (7.5 m) on a 14-foot (4 m) for a total height of about 39 feet (12 m) at the apex.
The rendering of the Kickapoo Community Childcare Center as visualized by Michael McCoy of Michael McCoy Architects, Inc.
Michael McCoy Architects, Inc. / Monolithic Commons / CC BY 4.0
Municipal and commercial Monolithic Domes cost about the same as conventional structures of the same size, but they come with safety from natural disasters at no extra cost. When the staff at Kickapoo learned about the dome’s well-earned reputation of indestructibility, security AND energy efficiency, they started pushing for their new childcare center to be built in the round. In addition, the dome makes sense to the Kickapoo people because of its shape which echoes the traditional structures used by the tribes in winter until the modern era.
There are nine classrooms, a brightly-lit administrative lobby and a huge kitchen. Mary Walker, Child Care and Development Fund Program Coordinator for Kickapoo told us the staff is pleased with the dome and she enjoyed watching its construction from her office. “I never saw anything like it before, and it was remarkable,” she said.
“It went up pretty fast. I think it’s even better than we thought it would be. I’m glad that we got approval to build it and I’m just glad for the children because they’re going to be safe now.”
The Monolithic Dome Kickapoo Community Childcare Center is ringed with several fenced playgrounds with private access from the nine classrooms. The multicolored band around the dome represents traditional beadwork of the Kickapoo Tribe.