Vail home back listed for $4 million

For Boulderite Andrew McBryan and his family, living in “The Dome” in Vail is like perching in a bird’s nest.

“You get a 360 degree view up and down over the valley. It’s pretty amazing,” McBryan said.

McBryan owns the top two floors of the raised geodesic dome on the 2900 block of Basingdale Boulevard. The property, built in 1976, is visible from Interstate 70 and has been listed for $4 million.

“Forget ski condos with a dozen square rooms. It’s unique. It’s a really fun space to live in,” said McBryan, who spent near the property for more than 20 years before buying it in July 2022.

“This is one of those places in Vail that everyone knows about.”

The dome, built when Vail’s architecture was more whimsical, looks like a papier-mâché project.

Domes were built across the country in the mid to late 1970s in an effort to create more energy-efficient homes.

But the spherical design poses construction problems. Most building materials like windows and pipes are designed for traditional homes, so domed homes require custom products or renovation. Chimneys can be tricky to place, creating rooms and divisions is difficult, and expanding domed homes is impossible.

As building regulations became stricter, dome construction slowed. “I suspect in Vail in the ’70s you could do whatever you wanted, but now the building codes are different,” McBryan said.

McBryan and his family, who live in Boulder, spend part of their year staying on the three-bedroom top floor. He bought the two units in July 2022 for $2.4 million.

McBryan then spent $300,000 renovating the third floor and four-bedroom second floor, which the family rents out for short-term vacation stays. McBryan added new windows, new floors, and new custom kitchens to both units.

Another owner rents the first floor.

“We had fun restoring it and bringing it back to its glory, in a way,” McBryan said. “Now that we’ve done that, it’s time to pass it on.”