GIVING IVAN THE SLIP
Unique house hardly touched by storm
Mark Sigler built his Pensacola Beach home to stand up to storms.
By Antigone Barton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 23, 2004
PENSACOLA BEACH — As islanders returned to what was left of their homes Wednesday, Mark Sigler stood in the doorway of the house he never left and surveyed his domain.
Bearing a sign that proclaims "A Dome of a Home," it faces the Gulf of Mexico, which tore neighboring homes to shreds. Sigler stayed in it and slept through the height of Hurricane Ivan, disturbed only by the snoring of a cameraman who stayed to document the event.
By morning, the home had lost its front steps but stood singularly unscathed, surrounded by ruins.
Mark Sigler slept here during the night Ivan hit, while homes around him were destroyed.
Sigler said he built the home to stand up to what happened here last week. He enumerates its hurricane-proof assets: the cement, steel and foam construction; the cork floors that will never mold; the 16 pilings it stands on, compared to others that have 40, eroding the sand beneath them.
But the greatest asset, he said, is the most obvious: the igloo shape, which he said helped Inuits get through worse storms 7,000 years ago.
The concept of a dome is nothing new. It's just one of the strongest structures made, he said.
Sigler, 53, built the home and moved into it 14 months ago.
Before retiring, his business was dental technology. He said he and his brother created the first porcelain laminate veneers. Sigler said he applied similar technology to the veneer of the home, which he compares to a molar, with its root-like pilings and dimensions.
It is not all about function and practicality, though.
"Each room has its own holographic fireplace with and without heat," he said, walking through the spacious quarters that unwind beneath the dome. "Bidets in every bathroom, with three speeds of water force."
A sauna, steam room and wet bar adjoin his quarters at the top of the home. Behind the bedroom is the safe room — where he was prepared to retreat to — that looks like a walk-in closet.
Also outside his room is a queen-size loft bed for the grandchildren.
"Kids really love this house," Sigler said.
He rents out the house during the summer — $5,000 a week for up to 10 people — when he and his wife retreat to their log cabin in Montana. "That makes it like staying in a Motel 8," he said.
SOURCE
