The dome design appears to quite a sensible and clever design for the winter and snow conditions expected, but has probably aged quite poorly in the sunshine after getting on for 30 years old. The design has one major flaw though, as soon a tear appears in the outer fabric of Teflon coated fibre glass the whole dome structure is compromised as it will deflate as the inner and outer air pressure begins to equalise.

Building a rigid structure over such a large area designed to take 18 to 24 inch snow load would be a very expensive civil engineering design challenge.

We might even see the same thing happen to the London Millennium dome monstrous carbuncle later this winter also.