Do I need a building permit for a Growing Dome in New York?

Permit requirements vary by town, city, and county. Size thresholds, use classifications, and snow load requirements differ across the state, so call your building department early and tell them the footprint and that the structure is a greenhouse. We supply construction drawings and specifications for permit applications on request. Start with our building department guide.

How does a Growing Dome handle upstate New York snow?

The dome's shape sheds snow rather than holding it, and the triangulated frame spreads the remaining load across the whole structure. The kit can be built to withstand snow loads of 120 pounds per square foot and more with slight modifications. Our own domes in Pagosa Springs run through Rocky Mountain winters every year.

Do you deliver and install in New York?

Every kit ships freight from our factory in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and our crew installs in New York; the Livingston dome went up with the Growing Spaces crew in 2022. You can also build the dome yourself with the installation manual. The shipping page and the installation options page cover both paths.

Can I grow year-round in New York?

Owners and schools do; the Glen Spey dome keeps a tropical garden going off-grid through New York winters. What January looks like depends on dome size and site. The heating and cooling guide walks through the numbers, and the climate calculator gives recommendations for your ZIP code.

Greenhouses for Sale in New York

Growing Spaces has built the Growing Dome® greenhouse kit in Pagosa Springs, Colorado for more than 35 years, and more than 50 of them are installed across New York. Long gray winters, real snow, and short upstate seasons are the local test.

One Montessori school in Glen Spey runs a 42 foot off-grid tropical greenhouse through all of it.

50+

Growing Domes installed in New York, as of July 2026.

Designed for the snow belt

Built in the Rocky Mountains for lake effect loads, gray stretches, and freezes that run for months.

Built for New York conditions

Upstate New York winters are long, gray, and snowy, with lake effect bands that load a structure fast and hard freezes that run for months. Summers turn humid.

The Growing Dome design answers each of these directly. The geodesic frame sheds snow instead of holding it and spreads the remaining load across the whole structure; the kit can be built to withstand loads of 120 pounds per square foot and more with slight modifications. The glazed dome takes in light from every direction through short winter days, the above-ground water tank stores daytime heat and releases it overnight, automated vents open on heat rather than grid power, and the undersoil air system carries warm air into the soil, where cold nights do the most damage.

The design pages cover each system in depth: passive solar design, thermal mass, the undersoil system, and automated vents. For structural detail, see the weather resistant greenhouse kit page.

A tropical greenhouse in the Catskills region

Homestead School, a Montessori school on a 200 year old, 85 acre homestead in Glen Spey, runs a 42 foot off-grid tropical greenhouse as part of the permaculture program it launched in 2017.

Read the Homestead School story.

tropical plants inside a 42 foot Growing Dome in the catskills

From the city to a dome in Livingston

After seven years in New York City, Gleb and Sophia moved to Livingston and put up a 26 foot Growing Dome in 2022, installed by the Growing Spaces crew, as the working center of a simpler life growing their own food.

Read the Livingston story.

A young family gardens in a Livingston 26 foot Growing Dome

A school build in Belfast

Belfast Central School raised a 33 foot Growing Dome as a student project and documented the build.

See the Belfast Central School build. More New York stories live in the New York greenhouses archive.

Permits, snow, and logistics in New York

The questions New York buyers ask first.

Students work in the homestead dome in Catskills area

Choosing your dome

Growing Domes come in six sizes, 15 to 42 feet across. The right one depends on what you want to grow, how much of the year you want to grow it, and your site. The greenhouse guide walks through the choice, the shop lists current kit pricing, and the comparison pages set the dome against other structures, starting with the gothic arch.

Plan a New York greenhouse with an advisor

Tell us your town, site, and what you want to grow. We will help you size the dome, plan the site, and sort out permits and delivery before you commit to anything.

Talk with an advisor

a deer stands alert outside a Growing Dome greenhouse