raw · articles · ingested 2026-07-18
The Rise and Fall of Drop City — Western Art & Architecture (2009)
Source: Steve Baer / Zomeworks archive
Steven Rosen — Western Art & Architecture, Fall/Winter 2009
Source URL: https://westernartandarchitecture.com/features/the-rise-and-fall-of-drop-city
Near Trinidad in southern Colorado, Drop City once stood as one of the 1960s’ most celebrated communes. Located in the rural El Moro area, idealistic residents constructed Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic domes using recycled car roofs, incorporating passive solar heating and experimental architecture.
The commune gained international recognition and received a $500 Dymaxion Award from Fuller himself for its “economically poetic architecture.” By 1973, however, it had become abandoned. The seven-acre site is occupied by a trucking company with a collapsed hangar.
Scholar Adam Lerner: “Precisely because there’s nothing left, there’s this kind of magic around it.”
Founding
Clark Richert, Gene Bernofsky, and JoAnn Bernofsky founded Drop City in 1965 after hearing Fuller speak at the University of Colorado. The name derived from “Drop Art,” an earlier performance concept involving dropping painted objects from buildings.
Architecture
Early structures used zonohedron-based designs by engineer Steve Baer, which proved easier to assemble than traditional geodesics. Panels were cut from flattened automobile roofs — a free material available at junkyards.
Residents adopted playful pseudonyms and created art installations, including a motorized “Ultimate Painting” displayed at the Brooklyn Museum and in Paris.
Aftermath
By 1973 the commune was abandoned.
Former residents:
- Clark Richert — continued as painter and art educator
- Steve Baer — founded Zomeworks in New Mexico
- John Curl — became social worker and author; published For All the People
Legacy (as of 2009)
- Documentary in progress by filmmaker Joan Grossman and co-director Tom McCourt
- Planned museum exhibit “Deep Structure: The Ever-Present Legacy of Drop City” at Denver Museum of Contemporary Art (2011–2012)
- T. C. Boyle’s novel Drop City (2003)
- John Curl’s memoir
Source: Steven Rosen, “The Rise and Fall of Drop City,” Western Art & Architecture, Fall/Winter 2009. Fetched from web. URL: https://westernartandarchitecture.com/features/the-rise-and-fall-of-drop-city