Wooden skyscraper: who built the strangest house in Alaska (8 photos + 1 video)

A strange design in the form of houses set on top of each other resembles a children's pyramid and, in general, was built just like that, without any special purposes - especially not for the sake of attracting tourists.





But an unusual wooden "teremok", known as Dr. Seuss House ("House of Dr. Seuss"), is the only attraction of the town of Talkeetna in Alaska - and even then unusual house built far enough away, it's just the nearest locality.



"The House of Dr. Seuss"

But let's start with the fact that this house was built by no doctor Suze, and a certain Phil Widener, a man of diverse interests, judging by everything - they write that he worked as a lawyer in Anchorage, while he credited with wanting to start a local radio station called Radio Free Goose Creek. But this idea arose after he realized that almost built a skyscraper.

However, Phil Widener is an engineer by training, so not only to start the radio, but he was able to build a house on his own.

At first, he simply bought a piece of land south of Talkitny to build themselves an ordinary two-story house there as cottages for outdoor recreation.





The topmost part of the already abandoned "House of Dr. Seuss"

Since he made all the drawings and plans on his own, somehow it came up by itself to make the third floor, and then - fourth, fifth, sixth...

In general, only the law stopped him - he literally hit the ceiling, which is established by law. It turns out on Alaska cannot build houses higher than 200 feet (60-odd meters) in order to in other words, planes did not crash into them (there is a very developed light aviation as the most accessible means of transport). In the end he stopped at 185 feet - forced.

It is impossible to accurately calculate the number of floors in the house - their number depends on which stairs to climb up.



They say that at some stage of construction it looked like this inside - frames from the video

But in general, formally, there are at least 12 of them, and a maximum of 17. the highest "observation deck" offers a gorgeous view, the assurances of connoisseurs, is visible for 300 miles around (almost 500 kilometers).

It is not clear whether this is true or not, but Phil Widener is credited with there are a lot of ideas at once, knitted with such a height of the house - about the radio we they said they are also writing about the idea of putting a telescope there, he also attributed to the love of watching the northern lights ...

But the most beautiful legend says that he built this house after a forest fire, when there were no trees around.



Dr. Seuss House

He really liked the view of the mountain from his site. Denali, but the regenerating forest began to hide a wonderful view - here and had to build the house parallel to the growth of trees.

Perhaps this could also explain the fact that the owner built his house for over 20 years, but in general this is often explained by the fact that Phil Widener was a fairly sought-after trial lawyer and simply he didn't have much free time.

In this case, it is clear why the construction was not completed. - the owner of the house himself said more than once that he had no special goal, he just love the process.



The river next to Dr. Seuss House, which gave it the name Goose Creek Tower

By the way, despite the well-known name "Doctor's House Susa", in fact, the owner himself called his work Goose Creek Tower (by the name of the river, flowing nearby). But why is there any doctor, you ask?

There is no need to explain to the Americans themselves, but it is completely incomprehensible to us who we are talking about.

In fact, we are talking about a famous writer, artist and a cartoonist named Theodor Geisel, who was known as Dr. Seuss House, releasing under this pseudonym books for the most little children.



Homes of the real Dr. Seuss

Among the illustrations for books and cartoons that he I drew myself, there were also "signature" houses that every American identifies as "the house of Dr. Seuss".

It is clear that architecturalPhil Widener's creation reminded the Americans of these surreal children's houses.

And finally, how did this story end with home? But nothing. It is known that he has a new owner, why is the "author" got rid of his masterpiece, not exactly reported. Who is the buyer - also unknown, but the territory remains private and closed, no museums and even the appearance of active life. At the same time, Philipp Weidner, judging by the website of his law firm, alive and well, although, of course, no longer young.



Philip Weidner, a respectable lawyer, and his strange building, which he abandoned