Unusual Home Designed by Fairfax Architect

Unusual Home Designed by Fairfax Architect
Beach house was built to withstand hurricanes

Hurricane Ivan is about to give Fairfax architect Jonathan Zimmerman one heck of a performance evaluation.

Zimmerman designed one of the most prominent homes in the path of the category 5 storm, which is expected to reach the Gulf Coast tomorrow. The home is in Pensacola Beach, Fla., on the coast of the Florida panhandle.

Like many of Zimmerman's designs, the dome-shaped home built last year is specially made to weather even the heaviest of storms. It's made of steel-reinforced concrete and includes windows able to sustain the force of a two-by-four hitting them at 200 mph.

Ivan is promising winds of nearly 160 mph.

Mark and Valerie Sigler own the home, which was damaged twice in recent years by hurricanes Aaron and Opal. They sought out Zimmerman to help them design a home that would meet lofty weather-resistant standards set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The plan helped the Siglers score a $245,000 FEMA grant to help them rebuild their home from scratch.

With the home in Ivan's path and Hurricanes Charley and Frances having left their devastating marks on the region in recent weeks, Zimmerman is seeing a surge of interest in his work. But he said he has mixed feelings about the potential business, particularly because it's at the detriment of the S