Renowned architect and inventor Steve Baer, known for his work in geometry, sustainable design and solar energy, died May 17 at the age of 85. Baer’s legacy continues to shape the fields he revolutionized. Baer was often called a pioneer of solar technology.
Jose Baer, Steve’s son, said he was a self-taught expert in architecture, engineering and mathematics, pioneered passive solar technologies and created inventions used by everyone from children to Nobel laureates. His experimental designs from the 1960s and 70s pushed the boundaries of conventional architecture, inspiring a new generation dedicated to sustainable design.
Born in 1938, Steve Baer attended multiple colleges before dropping out. A report from the Comment said he was considered one of the founders of “bioclimatic architecture.â€
“I never quite fit into that whole college thing,†Baer said in an article in Mother Earth News.
He attended UCLA and Amherst College before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1960, where he was stationed in Germany. During this time, his wife Holly gave birth to their daughter, Audrey. After completing his military service, he attended the Zurich Technical Institute in Switzerland, where their son Jose was born.
In 1965, the Baers moved to Albuquerque, where Steve worked as a surveyor and welder. In 1968, they moved to Corrales, where he began experimenting with domes.
“It was really the freedom that New Mexico represented that made them move to Albuquerque,†Jose Baer said.
Professional achievements
Around 1970, Baer, along with Barry Hickman and Ed Heinz, founded ZomeWorks, a company designing and manufacturing zomes — open, airy structures offering greater structural flexibility than domes. ZomeWorks also developed solar water heaters and other innovative hardware.
According to Jose Baer, the 31-zone truss was possibly his father’s most significant work. This geometric structural system, known as a space frame system, was developed into a modeling kit sold as the Zometoy by ZomeWorks. Scientists discovered the Zometoy in the 1980s, and it remains in use today, including by Nobel laureates to illustrate work in quasicrystals and symmetry.
Initially, the company focused on building playground climbers, which are still used nationwide. They later expanded to include homes and public structures designed to leverage local climates for heating and cooling using passive solar products. One notable experiment was the Baer family house in Corrales, famous for its innovative use of passive solar energy.
“He taught me so much about using the Earth and the Sun,†Robert Mora, a former neighbor, said. “When you walked into his house in the middle of summer, when it was 100 degrees outside, it was comfortable inside.â€
Peter van Dresser, one of Baer’s business partners, described himself as having spent most of his adult life laboring on the groundwork of a “personal economy outside the urban industrial complex.†Van Dresser built solar water heaters in Florida in the ’30s and had a long-term interest in the simple utilization of solar wind and solar energy. The passive solar home he built in the 1950s in Santa Fe inspired Baer to integrate solar into his Zome dwellings.
Together, Baer and van Dresser founded the New Mexico Solar Energy Association (NMSEA) in 1972 in Ghost Ranch with Keith Haggard. The first “Life Technic†conference at Ghost Ranch brought together over 50 other members to share information about solar energy.
In 2018, Steve and Jose attended the Art Basel fair in Basel, Switzerland, where a full-scale replica of the Baer house was exhibited. Jose remarked, “That was a bizarre experience.â€
In 2010, Baer received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, recognizing five architects exemplifying sustainable development principles.
Baer authored several books, including Dome Cookbook (1968), Zome Primer (1970), Sunspots: Collected Facts and Solar Fiction (1977), and More Sunspots (2012).
He patented numerous inventions, including the osmotic heat pipe for zero-gravity environments and cool cells for regulating temperature using passive energy.
Steve Baer is survived by his wife, Holly, his son Steve, his grandchildren Isaac and Sophia Baer and his brother, William Baer. His daughter Audrey, who died six years ago from lung cancer, had two children, Tess and Hannah Johnson.