A Necessary Ruin The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome (2010)

Upon its completion in October 1958 the Union Tank Car Dome located north of Baton Rouge Louisiana was the largest clearspan structure in the world Based on the engineering principles of the visionary design scientist and philosopher Buckminster Fuller this geodesic dome was at 384 feet in diameter the first large scale example of this building type A Necessary Ruin chronicles the domes history via interviews with architects engineers preservationists media and artists animated sequences demonstrating the operation of the facility and hundreds of rare photographs and video segments taken during the domes construction decline and demolition