Living in a double geodesic dome house near what remains of the Michigan Central train depot in Detroit, Leo Gillis is the brother of musician Jack White of the White Stripes, the Dead Weather, and the Raconteurs. Gillis' home is famous around town in part because of his brother's work, but mostly because of it's hard to miss. The structure, which brings to mind a giant igloo, is curious, but it's also painted a bright blue and stands in a neighborhood where nothing else is modern.

"The only dome house in Detroit, it may be one of the strongest structures in the city," according to a Metro Times story that ran back in 2005. "Made of steel-reinforced concrete, domes are famous for Herculean attributes - able to withstand fires, earthquakes and winds of 150 mph (on a rounded surface, there's simply nothing for the wind to catch) whether from hurricanes or tornadoes. Dome company literature says you could stack four cars on a dome with nary a dent."

The Gillis family (Leo lives in the dome with his wife and two children) built the home from a kit purchased from American Ingenuity. Ever since constructing the house in 2000, Gillis has given tours to hundreds of neighbors and tourists who have stopped by. He's happy to. “We love this neighborhood, we’re from here and we wanted to make a statement that things are happening here, innovators live here,” Gillis told the Metro Times.

The main dome is 45 feet in diameter, but it also includes a side dome that is 35 feet in diameter. Together, the two domes provide about 4,000 square feet of living space - built for less than $90,000 all told. Cheap. And the dome is cheap to maintain too. Plastic tubes pump hot water through the dome floor to keep the internal temperature high at a low cost.