Glass House This unusual roadside attraction was built from over half a million discarded embalming fluid bottles.  In 1952, David H. Brown retired from 35 years in the funeral business.  It occurred to Mr. Brown that there should be some practical use to put the bottles to.  And, it was all started, to quote Mr. Brown, “to indulge a whim of a peculiar nature”. Mr. Brown traveled western Canada collecting bottles from many of his friends in the funeral profession, until he had acquired 500,000 of the square shaped bottles, weighing 250 tons in all. The house itself sits upon solid rock.  Built in a cloverleaf pattern with three main rooms, circular shape, 48 feet in length, 24 feet wide and with the upstairs room, it contains 1,200 sq ft of floor space. Entering the grounds, the visitors are welcomed by a mountain stream trickling over a moss-covered water wheel which brings to life the dwarf inhabitants nestled around the wishing well. Over 320 dozen flowers border pathways and entice visitors from the terrace over a bridge also built of glass bottles.  A winding path beneath the bridge leads to the rocky lakeshore and a lookout called the lighthouse which offers a spectacular view of beautiful Kootenay Lake. Tours of the estate are available seven days a week, May to October.  Gift shop also located on property just 25 miles north of Creston on the shores of Kootenay Lake.

Glass House

This unusual roadside attraction was built from over half a million discarded embalming fluid bottles.  In 1952, David H. Brown retired from 35 years in the funeral business.  It occurred to Mr. Brown that there should be some practical use to put the bottles to.  And, it was all started, to quote Mr. Brown, “to indulge a whim of a peculiar nature”.

Mr. Brown traveled western Canada collecting bottles from many of his friends in the funeral profession, until he had acquired 500,000 of the square shaped bottles, weighing 250 tons in all.

The house itself sits upon solid rock.  Built in a cloverleaf pattern with three main rooms, circular shape, 48 feet in length, 24 feet wide and with the upstairs room, it contains 1,200 sq ft of floor space.

Entering the grounds, the visitors are welcomed by a mountain stream trickling over a moss-covered water wheel which brings to life the dwarf inhabitants nestled around the wishing well.

Over 320 dozen flowers border pathways and entice visitors from the terrace over a bridge also built of glass bottles.  A winding path beneath the bridge leads to the rocky lakeshore and a lookout called the lighthouse which offers a spectacular view of beautiful Kootenay Lake.

Tours of the estate are available seven days a week, May to October.  Gift shop also located on property just 25 miles north of Creston on the shores of Kootenay Lake.

Outsider Architecture: 1 Man + 30 Years + 20,000 Sq Ft.

Slated for forced demolition, can the colossal Phonehenge West yet be saved? While many of us marvel at the work that goes into such decade-spanning, single-person construction projects, the authorities are not always as impressed – one man may learn this lesson the hard way.

Alan Kimble Fahey has labored for much of his life on this offbeat compilation of interconnected structures and hodgepodge spaces.  However, Los Angeles County is coming down hard on the un-permitted piece of architectural art.  

This specific dilemma raises a more timeless question, however, for historic preservation: at what point does personal or public interest play a valid role in creating exceptions to rules? One man’s scrap heap is another man’s castle of trash, after all – and asking someone to demolish their abode is a rather big deal.  It would be unfair to call the work a pile of unsafe junk – much of it is traditionally-framed and solidly-built, even if it does not conform to traditional typological norms.

Hobbit Home Blends Forest Fantasy & Structural Reality When commissioned to design a place worthy of housing an extensive collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, an architect could easily go overboard and make a farcical movie set out of such an assignment. Instead, Peter Archer focused on the fine craft, beautiful materials and traditional construction implied by the original Hobbit-related novels. Existing stones on the site from an aged rock wall were appropriated for use in the new structure. Custom-crafted round wooden doors add to the authenticity of the design but are also an example of the balance between fantasy and reality, with structural requirements dictating the thickness a door could be and the strength of the steel required to hinge it on a single point. Custom patterns are etched in various places, adding to the sense of a hand-crafted approach applied to the entire building project. The end result is a fantastically rich and complex design blending modern materials and practices with traditional ones and balancing between the fictional world of the project’s inspiration with extant design styles throughout history.

Hobbit Home Blends Forest Fantasy & Structural Reality

When commissioned to design a place worthy of housing an extensive collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, an architect could easily go overboard and make a farcical movie set out of such an assignment. Instead, Peter Archer focused on the fine craft, beautiful materials and traditional construction implied by the original Hobbit-related novels.

Existing stones on the site from an aged rock wall were appropriated for use in the new structure. Custom-crafted round wooden doors add to the authenticity of the design but are also an example of the balance between fantasy and reality, with structural requirements dictating the thickness a door could be and the strength of the steel required to hinge it on a single point.

Custom patterns are etched in various places, adding to the sense of a hand-crafted approach applied to the entire building project. The end result is a fantastically rich and complex design blending modern materials and practices with traditional ones and balancing between the fictional world of the project’s inspiration with extant design styles throughout history.

Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut

Built in 1874 by Edward Tuckerman Potter, architect. Interior design in 1881 by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated Artists.

Before he became famous for his novels, Samuel Clemens (“Mark Twain”) married into a wealthy family. Samuel Clemens and his wife Olivia Langdon asked the noted architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design a lavish “poet’s house” on Nook Farm, a pastoral neighborhood in Hartford, Connecticut.

Edward Tuckerman Potter was known for designing grand Romanesque churches, but his design for the Clemens home was bright and whimsical. With brilliantly colored bricks, geometric patterns, and elaborate trusses, the 19-room mansion became a hallmark of what came to be known as the Stick Style of architecture. After living in the house for several years, the Clemens hired Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated Artists to decorate the first floor with stencils and wallpapers.

Taking the pen name Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens wrote his most famous novels in this house, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The house was sold in 1903. Samuel Clemens died in 1910.