{"id":450,"date":"2011-08-16T10:31:46","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T16:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/?p=450"},"modified":"2011-09-02T09:27:15","modified_gmt":"2011-09-02T15:27:15","slug":"this-old-round-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"This Old Round House"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the outskirts of Canutillo, visible from I-10 is a rather curious structure. Sitting in the desert is a dome shaped, round concrete house. \u00a0As a kid, I could recall seeing it when we would travel west and it would\u00a0immediately\u00a0conjure up images of what living in the “future” must be like.<\/p>\n

I never got to see the house up close but you easily could see the domed concrete roof, gazebo and diving boards from the freeway. \u00a0It was right out of an episode of\u00a0“That’s\u00a0Incredible” or “Real People”, where they would show some family living off the grid in a solar dome in New Mexico making their own\u00a0gasoline\u00a0from corn or something.<\/p>\n

On a recent trip to pick up firewood in Las Cruses, I scanned for it as we passed\u00a0where\u00a0it should have been. Either I had missed it or something was blocking my view because I didn’t see it. \u00a0I checked Bing maps’ “birds-eye-view” and found an image of it so at least when Bing went live it was still there:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
The Canutillo Round House<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Hmmm, It didn’t look as fantastic as I\u00a0remembered but hey its standing. \u00a0I headed to check it out in person and see what it would be like to live in a future from the 70’s.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
The futures not so bright<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

The site was less Barbarella and more Mad Max. The main house has\u00a0collapsed on itself\u00a0and\u00a0unkempt\u00a0shrubs and weeds were everywhere.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
That was a dome idea<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Upon closer inspection you get a\u00a0sense that the\u00a0construction was a little less refined than it appeared from\u00a0afar and whoever built it really liked concrete. \u00a0Not only was the roof concrete but the exterior walls, gazebo and weird tubular\u00a0perimeter fence were cement. The interior walls also have rocks\u00a0embedded in them in a rather\u00a0haphazard pattern.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Nice<\/a><\/dt>\n
Nice fountain<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

I\u00a0couldn’t get a feel for what the interior would have looked like due to the roof\u00a0collapse. \u00a0It was apparent that nobody has lived here in a long time. \u00a0The interior has been stripped and\u00a0graffiti covers every surface.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"All<\/a><\/dt>\n
All tagged up<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

The pool must have been a sight in it’s heyday. You can imagine all manner of 70’s disco parties taking place here;\u00a0mustaches,\u00a0corvettes, polyester and\u00a0cocaine.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Poolside\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
Poolside<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

It would be interesting to know what caused the owners to abandon their hip outpost. Judging by the lack of any insulation, keeping this place cool or hot might have been a chore. Maybe they were bankrupted by the acres of concrete layed in casting this place. \u00a0One things for sure, you don’t get up and leave your house unmonitored in Canutillo. \u00a0That’s asking for gangs to move in.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"915!\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
915!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

It was a bummer seeing this place in such disarray. \u00a0Much like my\u00a0fantasy future of\u00a0geodesic dome living never panned out,\u00a0it didn’t for the owners here either. \u00a0The hard truth is given enough time, concrete will crack no matter how much you pour.<\/p>\n

A bigger walk through is here: This Old Round House<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the outskirts of Canutillo, visible from I-10 is a rather curious structure. Sitting in the desert is a dome shaped, round concrete house. \u00a0As a kid, I could recall seeing it when we would travel west and it would\u00a0immediately\u00a0conjure up images of what living in the “future” must be like. I never got to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[19,24,25],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","tag-abandoned","tag-canutillo","tag-concrete-house"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1MdZY-7g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rust2.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}