Spaceships? Tourist magnets? Teen hangouts? The Casa Grande Domes are now just rubble
Some likened the domes to spaceships, landed long ago in the Arizona desert.
Others speculated the abandoned structures were home to malevolent spirits who, for reasons of their own, had opted to spend the afterlife off Interstate 8 just south of Casa Grande.
To more than a few local teenagers, they were a place to drink and hang out. To graffiti artists, an alluring canvas. To Pinal County, a headache.
But whatever they were over the past 40 years, the Domes of Casa Grande are no more.
One of the four concrete and polyurethane foam buildings off Thornton Road closely resembled a flying saucer. The other three were more like caterpillars, a series of connected mounds.
The unusual structures were demolished Monday following a years-long court battle between Pinal County and owners Dan and Karon Peer, who bought the property in 2006.
The buildings were constructed in 1982, intended as the futuristic new headquarters of electronics manufacturer InnerConn Technology Inc. But the company went bankrupt, the plant never opened, and the place was abandoned.
The Domes of Casa Grande became an unofficial tourist attraction, the curved walls covered in street art and sprayed slogans. "No trespassing" signs did little to dissuade visitors, even as the structures fell into obvious disrepair.
The site was condemned by Pinal County in 2017, but the Peers appealed the decision and a five-year legal battle ensued. It was resolved in the county's favor last year, and in November the board of supervisors approved a demolition contract.
Pinal County has a lien on the property for incurred costs from the demolition, which cost $128,676, and the legal case, according to a spokesperson.
Now only piles of rubble, protected by a temporary chain-link fence, are left where the domes once stood. According to Pinal County, the demolition was deliberately swift to prevent people putting themselves at risk while trying to get one last look.
Cleanup is expected to continue over the next couple of weeks. And on Wednesday, a handful of people stopped by, eager to witness the final days of this Arizona curiosity.
Casa Grande couple Dianna and Kenneth Neukircher pulled up at about midday, snapping some shots of the front-end loader and excavator at work.
They often brought visiting guests out to see the domes, Dianna said, and had last been there at Thanksgiving.
"I thought it was such a cool place," she said. "I don't like to see it go, but I know it was dangerous, too. Because people did always go out there."
Kenneth was not such a fan of the domes, he said, but it was his suggestion to drive out there Wednesday.
"I read it in the paper, and said 'I hate to say this honey, but we've got to go see the domes.'"
Another onlooker, who declined to give his name, said he would always remember the "eerie" acoustics inside the dilapidated structures.
As he watched the machines at work, he scooped up a few pieces of foam, now brittle and yellowed, that had fallen outside the construction fence. He said he planned to display them on his wall.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Abandoned Casa Grande domes demolished
