Barry Hickman and Ed Heinz — research findings, Zomeworks founding and Alloy Conference (fetched 2026-07-19)

Fetched: 2026-07-19 Reliability: mixed — exhaustive web search (genealogy sites, patent databases, obituary indexes, NM architecture archives) for both names turned up no independent biographical record. Every source traces back to Steve Baer’s own writing or interviews.

New finding: the 1969 Alloy Conference

A Mother Earth News interview with Steve and Holly Baer quotes Baer directly on the founding sequence:

“Then, in the spring of ‘69, Barry Hickman and Holly and I organized the Alloy Conference in Alamogordo and we invited people who were working on all kinds of things… After that conference we started Zomeworks. Barry Hickman and Ed Heinz and I issued stock like a corporation and got a lawyer and all of that… Organizing what we had been doing for fun and excitement into a business put a hell of a lot of strain on all of us at the beginning.”

This places Hickman as a co-organizer (with Steve and Holly Baer) of the Alloy Conference, the event that directly preceded Zomeworks’ formation — a detail not previously in this KB’s Zome Primer/Dome Cookbook-derived credits for Hickman.

Flag: other general counterculture-history sources describe “the Alloy Conference” as held near Drop City, in Coyote/Gardner, Colorado, in March 1969 — a location discrepancy with Baer’s “Alamogordo” recollection in this interview. Not resolved; both claims are recorded as found.

Founding-date corroboration

The 2024 Corrales Comment obituary for Baer gives a slightly different date than the Mother Earth News piece: “Around 1970, Baer, along with Barry Hickman and Ed Heinz, founded ZomeWorks…” — consistent with the c.1970 vs. 1969 founding-date ambiguity already tracked elsewhere in this KB.

Wikipedia’s Steve Baer article states: “Baer and Ed Heinz experimented with constructing buildings of unusual geometries that they came to call ‘zomes’… often using heavy sheet metal,” with early collaboration involving Drop City and “Maniera Nueva” [sic, Manera Nueva].

Unverified lead (Ed Heinz)

Grokipedia’s “Zome (architecture)” page (not independently fetchable — 403/401 on multiple attempts) is quoted via search snippets as stating “Edward Heinz,” along with Day Chahroudi, John Curl, Buck Dant, and Richard Kallweit, “created a model and audio-visual projection called Southwest Coming Together.” Could not be corroborated via Wikipedia’s own Zome article (no mention), academic sources, or exhibition records. Treat as unconfirmed given Grokipedia’s known reliability issues and the inability to verify its citation trail.

What was checked and found nothing

Obituaries under “Barry Hickman”/“Berry Hickman” and “Ed Heinz”/“Edward Heinz” matching a New Mexico/architecture profile (several unrelated same-name obituaries surfaced, none matching); USPTO/Justia patent search for both names; FindAGrave/genealogy sites; the UNM Albuquerque Modernism “Manera Nueva” page (no mention of either); current Zomeworks/Zometool “About Us” pages (neither name appears — later company history centers on Baer, Marc Pelletier, Paul Hildebrandt, Bob Nickerson); Spatial Agency’s Drop City page (no mention of Heinz).

Honest assessment

Neither Barry Hickman nor Ed Heinz has an independent public record. Both exist in the historical record only through Steve Baer’s own writing and interviews (Dome Cookbook, Zome Primer, Mother Earth News, the 2024 obituary, Wikipedia). Likely further leads not accessible via web search: New Mexico corporate/business registration filings for Zomeworks’ incorporation (would list original officers), and any surviving Alloy Conference attendee records.

Supporting URLs

Source: web research compiled 2026-07-19 for wiki article expansion.