Determined Students, Alumni Revive UC Davis Domes
DAVIS (CBS13) -- A group of UC Davis alumni and student volunteers are bringing back the iconic dome house community after school officials declared them unsafe and too expensive to repair earlier this year.
Supporters of the Baggins End "dome utopia" pitched in $30,000, while hundreds of volunteers have donated their time over the past three days in order to fix the floors, handrails, plumbing and handicap access, among other issues.
It will take a $100,000 loan to finish the project, and the 28 student tenants will pay $355 a month in rent to pay the loan off.
Former dome resident Max Stevenson said he loved living in the cozy 450 square foot homes for five years, calling the unique residences "an amazing place."
"It's convenient, on campus, inexpensive," Stevenson said. "Not just a place to live but to learn how to work in a community and manage a facility and work together."
Volunteers still have plenty of repairs to make and university officials will need to approve their work, but they hope to have 28 new students living within the spruced up domes by the beginning of 2012.
