On April 19th, Earth Day weekend 1996, the City of Hesperia Recreation and Park District broke ground to construct the Hesperia Museum and Nature Center, the first of it's kind in the world, legally permitted to be built totally of earthen construction, as part of the Desert Village, Rodeo/Arena and other futuristic programs in Hesperia.

The complex of fourteen domes and two vaults in earth and ceramics is designed by internationally renowned architect and author Nader Khalili, founder of the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture (Cal-Earth), who has devoted the last 20 years to developing simple disaster safe Earth Architecture technologies along with his associates and apprentices. For these he has won acclaim from NASA, CCAIA, and ASCE, for his proposals for building on the moon and Mars and worked with space science organizations in the U.S.

The project was approved by the Hesperia Building Department in consultation with the ICBO (International Conference of Building Officials) after successful static and dynamic load testing for wind, snow and earthquakes on full scale prototypes at Cal-Earth in Hesperia. The extensive engineering analysis and design, and the tests, were devised by Phill Vittore, a world specialist in dome engineering and structural design.

The architect's innovations of Superadobe (mile-long sandbags and barbed wire construction) and Ceramic Houses (fired in-place adobe structures) are seen as solutions to global deforestation by organizations such as the Turner Foundation and Rex Foundation (Grateful Dead) who have lent their sponsorship along with other organizations to work at Cal-Earth.

The United Nations with whom Khalili has built housing prototypes usimg these technologies see these as the answer to affordable housing worldwide and emergency relief housing because of their efficient simplicity.

The Hesperia Museum and Nature Center sets the most important precedent for building with earth in the American fast-track mainstream in a harsh climate. They will be built with standard contractors' equipment and skills, by community participation, and by the Laura Huxley Teenage Program (Our Ultimate Investment Foundation) who sponsors teenagers at Cal-Earth.

The project demonstrates how, with the simplest of elements, Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire, and with the ancient earth architecture techniques developed in the deserts of Iran and the Middle East, and traditional cultures from the Native Americans of the far west to China in the far east, whole communities could be developed in total harmony with the environment.

The process which has led to the permitting and building of this historic project with the support of Hesperia's progressive City Council, Recreation and Park District, and Building and Safety, show that the American pioneering spirit still realize a vision of the new century.