Was told not to build underground. Ravaging tornado proved him right

When Tim and Monica open the front door of their underground home buried beneath a Missouri hillside, they step into a world most people can't fathom. Only one corner of the structure is visible. Everything else has disappeared into the earth. Fifty years ago, architect and builder Dennis Spencer purchased a sloping north-facing lot in Springfield with a radical vision: what if you didn't fight the orientation, but worked with nature instead? He built down - a choice that went against conventional wisdom, but he knew what he was doing. The house was constructed in 1976 using post-tensioned concrete beams and a 7-inch roof slab - 250 pounds per square foot of carefully engineered strength - all for $70K. The roof is buried under 14 to 15 inches of earth and vegetation. Skylights pierce through. A ten-foot wall of east-facing glass brings in morning light. Inside, it's nothing like the dark, dank caves Tim explored growing up in Missouri - it's bright and open. But the real magic happens when you step outside. Turtles sunbathe on the "roof." Groundhogs burrow. Birds nest. Wildlife doesn't see this as a home; they see it as the hillside it's become. Even delivery trucks struggle to find the place. Then came November 1990. A Level 4 tornado - one of the deadliest - swept through the neighborhood with little warning. Neighbors lost everything. The surrounding landscape lost 41 trees. But this underground home? Minimal damage. While conventional houses crumbled around it, the earth and concrete held. Living inside those walls, the temperature stays constant year-round. Stable. Efficient. The thermal mass of the planet doing what it does best - protecting what matters. It's a home that's become indistinguishable from the landscape itself, with all the benefits that come with it. https://earth.house On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/was-told-not-to-build-underground-ravaging-tornado-proved-him-right/ http://airbnb.com/h/earthouse