That’s what Vincent Callebaut Architectures envisions for New York.  An almost 2000 foot high structure that would contain what is needed to produce fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy on its 132 floors.  Not only would the structure be a source for fresh food that was produced right there in the city, but it would also be a totally sustainable building that was powered by wind and sun, and would purify liquid waste into compost, fertilizer and water for the crops.

The structure would also contain houses for the people who tended the different crops, herds, etc., and research laboratories for testing product quality, ensuring that all the scientific mechanics are functional, and obviously providing a place for process improvement and environmental responsibility.

We might not see it in our lifetime, but the Belgian architect is certainly on to something.  Shouldn’t some of our research efforts and future expansion include projects where we can rely on solar and wind power rather than electricity and oil, and where we can grow and produce food that is safe and free of chemicals and scary hormones?

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The original structure was a wooden gate house – construction on the modern part of the structure began in 2007 and just ended summer of 2010.  The goal of the architect was to be true to the original structure, while making it modern and safe.  The newer parts of the structure make it so that the structure is earthquake resistant, which is amazing considering that means that a historic location is protected.

Aesthetically, it is a wonderful combination of the old and the new, with the textures and flavors of the old with the layouts and convenience of the new.  Burnt cedar adorns the outer walls while the floor plans have a modern and open feel.

The bottom part of the above photo shows that the end result is really quite striking.  Form and function meet history and grace.

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My first concern?  Birds.  Birds see their reflections in mirrors and fly at them because they think they are other birds.  The birds who do this often die.  Is the Treehotel murder for birds?  No, as it turns out.  In fact, the makers of Treehotel thought about this and have applied something like a label – invisible to the human eye but visible to birds, to prevent window strikes.

Treehotel’s philosophy is “Why not create a comfortable, well designed hotel which allows visitors to live in harmony with nature amongst the trees?”  Indeed.  Why not?  And why haven’t more people thought of this type of thing?

Treehotel is located in one of Sweden’s Boreal forest just south of the Arctic Circle.  Boreal forests, also known as Taiga, make up 27% of the planet’s forests, and are hosts to a wide range of flora and fauna, as well as many different animals.  Stay in the Treehotel, and you might see moose, reindeer, bears, and golden eagles during your stay.

Co-owner Kent Lindvall, along with several architects, created the mirror cube, as well as several other eco-friendly-looking structures in these woods, and they made sure the insides looked modern, clean, and fresh.

In addition to the Mirror Cube, there are also Bird’s Nest Room options, Blue Cone Room options, and more structures designed to work with the natural beauties of nature.  And, if you can drop more than $4K on a night at a hotel, you’re in for a very interesting stay.

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If you find yourself driving up the I-94 towards the Illinois-Wisconsin border, you will feel that you have lost your mind and landed straight in the middle of a full-blown mirage around the halfway point.  Looking to the right, you will catch sight of an image directly out of the Nile River Valley and the ancient land of pharaohs, and not of the nearby Fox River Valley, or whatever other slow, meandering rivers flow through the flat, forested landscape of Northern Illinois.  Emerging from the dense forestry off into the distance, you will discover a golden pyramid, along with a giant statute of Ramesses II, but this is no hallucination.   And it is most certainly a bizarre roadside attraction.

Built by Jim and Linda Onan in 1977, they were inspired by a University of Wisconsin study suggesting that pyramids generate energy.  This is based on a generally wacky seventies cult theory regarding “pyramid power.” Mr. Onan had a long-standing interest in all things Egyptology, and intrigued by the mysteries surrounding the supernatural powers associated with pyramids, the Onans built their home as such.  Prior to earning their fortune in the garage-building business, the Onans satisfied their pyramid yearnings by merely placing a cardboard pyramid in their dining room.  Once finances allowed, they made themselves a more lavish pyramid, this time a replica of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.  The Onans use five particular words to describe their unique home: power, gold, mystery, exotic, and impressive.  But they should have probably decided on either verbs or nouns when describing their home, and not both, because their brief and odd description of their strange home makes them sound a bit like illiterate crazies.

The golden pyramid house of Wadsworth, Illinois is presently a private residence inhabited by the Onans; however, from 1978 to 1981, the place was open to paying visitors and even had a gift shop on site.  Despite their current desire for privacy, this ridiculous structure is crying out to be photographed.  This can be accomplished by simply pulling up to the iron gates surrounding the property and snapping a couple of pictures to the chagrin of the home’s owners.  Please keep in mind that unwanted visitors have been chased by dogs while venturing within the property in the past, but curious travelers can get a great view of the house by peering through the locked gate off of Dilleys Road.

The exterior is obviously designed to look exactly like an ancient Egyptian pyramid.  The gold pyramid house stands 6 stories tall.  The 17,000 square-foot roof is made up entirely of stainless steel plates electroplated with gold.  It is generally thought to be the largest 24 karat gold plated object ever created.  The home also contains a triple-pyramid topped three-car garage, a 64 foot-tall and 200-ton statute of Ramesses II, a metal palm tree, and a driveway lined with 80 stone sphinxes.  In fact, the replica statute of Ramesses II in Wadsworth, Illinois is larger than the original in Egypt.  You may also notice that the home site is situated on a natural spring, and the water from the spring is so pure that Jim Onan is allowed to bottle and sell it, reportedly.  Water also forms a moat that encircles the entire structure. This moat is 20 feet deep and spring-lake fed. Therefore, the pyramid technically resides on an island, and you need to pass over a causeway to access the home.  Last but not least, there is a burial mound recreating the tomb of King Tutankhamun on the property.

You cannot presently go inside the home, except on special occasions when tours are offered to the public.  However, the walls are adorned with hand-painted hieroglyphs.  The basement, originally meant to house a swimming pool until water table problems interfered, is now the theater where Onan greets entering tour groups.  The particular contents and design of the upper floors, which contain the bedrooms and observation room towards the “point” of the pyramid, are not clearly known.  These sections of the pyramid are never open to the public.  According to sources, the house’s interior has a modern colonial and country décor, with just a few Egyptian statutes littering the sitting areas.

There are also several myths regarding the gold pyramid house, including the suggestion that the underground spring water simply and suddenly bubbled up out of nowhere at the center of the pyramid one day.  Moreover, in 1986, story goes that hordes of black birds started attacking those utilizing the north entrance to the pyramid’s “Chariot Room.”  And according to legend, black birds also protected the north entrance to the real tomb of King Tutankhamen.  Freaky, huh?  Also, those with a strong belief in the ancient powers of pyramidology claim to have often felt powerful energy at the north wall of the home, and also in the middle of the meeting room, which happens to reside directly above the source of the spring.

Notably, Linda Onan now runs her own online Egyptian gift shop.  Jim Onan also sells Pharaoh’s Gold II on this site, which he brews himself.  This beer claims to use a recipe that is over 4,000 years old, and was originally discovered while analyzing dried sediment found in the ante-chamber of an ancient temple.  And in 1993, the Onans offered their gold pyramid home as a means to help pay down the national deficit, basically offering the federal government use of their home for tours to earn substantial money, much like the Hearst Castle is utilized in California.

The Gold Pyramid House is located at 37921 Dilleys Road in Wadsworth, Illinois.

About Dana Bashor

Dana Bashor is the founder and owner of Dana Bashor Consulting Services. Dana Bashor consults for small-to-medium sized businesses and provides management tools and tips on her website. On her free time Dana Bashor loves to freelance on different topics and provide consumer alerts for sites like planet antares scam alerts.  Catch up with Dana on her blog or connect with Dana Bashor on facebook.

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For this edition of You Live Where, we’re focusing not on a particular house, but a particular region.  Why is it weird?  Well, it’s not so weird.  Is it strange?  Only if you think dropping $839,000 on a house is strange.  Is it interesting?  You betcha.

Daniel Island is a 4000 acre island off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina.  Like many locations in South Carolina, it is surrounded by water (hence the name “island”) and offers a lot (like 23 miles worth) of waterfront housing.  But that waterfront housing ain’t cheap, folks.  It shouldn’t be.  It’s not like they built bungalows on this particular island.

The house above is one featured on the Luxist website.  It’s modern and airy and REALLY expensive.

A view of some of the coastal homes on Daniel Island.  Looks pretty peaceful, huh?

Among many of the other wonderful features of this island village is the fact that the island is full of parks and open space, and has more than 12 miles of bike and walking trails.  Like any other exclusive and wealthy coastal town, the island also boasts a very exclusive country club that gets written up in all sorts of luxury and golf magazines.

When you pay for a home in a location like this, there are certain perks.  The neighborhood actually feels neighborhoodly, and the crime rate is WAY low.  Plus, it’s really pretty.

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A “junker” since childhood, Crow is all about vintage flea market finds and Americana.  We learned all this from a recent article in Elle online, and that’s also where we got the pictures, in case you wondered.

Hallway

Kitchen

Bathroom

Sitting Room

Despite Crow’s penchant for collecting, the space is airy and open.  She works with an architect – Elizabeth Roberts – to find the proper place for all her flea market finds.

This fantastic New York loft is not Crow’s primary residence – that’s in Nashville and has MUCH more space (it is a farm) but she and Wyatt have fun visiting New York, and it’s awfully nice to have a place there to call home.

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Gary decided to make the most of his space by implementing a sliding panel system that makes his apartment pretty much whatever he wants it to be.  Journalists and home enthusiasts have called the apartment “The Domestic Transformer” and the home was featured in The New York Times.

Check out the video:

Chang is obviously some sort of mad genius – the fact that he was able to design this setup and execute it speaks to his ingenuity and industry.  There are many, many tiny apartments in Hong Kong – and Chang is the first to think of this sort of solution to the problem of limited space.

The home is also considered ecologically friendly.  Chang has come up with a way to save on heating and cooling, and because his apartment gets pretty constant natural light he barely ever turns on the lights.

If we’re going to get technical about it, Chang’s apartment isn’t really 24 rooms – it’s really just an apartment with 24 possible configurations.

Chang has lived in this particular space since he was a young man.  The building was built in the 1960′s and when Chang first lived there he lived there with his mother and three sisters.  His father was a waiter in the United States.  Amazingly enough, during those days they also rented the third tiny partitioned bedroom to a tenant to help with the rent payment.

When Chang took possession of the apartment he began a lengthy four-renovation project that cost more than $200,000 and resulted in the remarkable apartment he lives in today.  It’s guys like this that make it so fun to write for this website!

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In world where modern design and technological advances have led to the construction of some of the most impressive (and unusual) residences, it cannot be forgotten that history has provided us with some unforgettable abodes that will continue to rival their modern descendents long after the foundations begin to crumble.  One such monument to oddity is the famous Mont. St. Michel, and eccentric little island just off the coast of Normandy.

Mont St Michel

The tiny isle lies about 1 km from the coast, and served as the seat of power for the Romano-British empire until it was overrun and captured by the Franks near the end of the 7^th century.  Perhaps the most notable characteristic of the place is the ancient Benedictine abbey which dominates nearly the entire island.  The history of the place is steeped in religious lore.  According to folklore, the massive church (and the island itself) is named after the Archangel Michael, who instructed the Bishop of Avranches to build a church on the location, and when repeatedly ignored, burned a hole through the clergyman’s skull with his finger.

One of the most impressive structures associated with the abbey is a set of steps known as the Escalier de Dentelle, which consists of over nine hundred steps and reaches all the way to the roof of the building.  Although the abbey (which dates from the 11^th century) is no longer the site of religious rites and pilgrimages, it can still boast a colorful history.  It has faced numerous battles and political upheavals.  During the French Revolution, the abbey was converted to a prison, housing mainly political and clerical opponents to the regime of the time.

It is a very interesting-looking structure.  Rumor has it that it was built in the 1950′s, and that it is the top of a silo turned upside down and roofed.  Most of the internet comments out there comment on the fact that it managed to survive Hurricane Ike – a 2009 hurricane classified as a Tropical Depression Nine.  Ike was a horrible hit to Texas, killing 6000 people in just a few hours.  It was the worst hurricane to hit Galveston since 1900.

The address of the Kettle House is 14108 San Luis Pass Road.

Treat, Shade, and Roggs wrote a book called Weird Texas, wherein they say that the house was built by a guy who used to build oil storage tanks.  According to locals, nobody lives in the Kettle House, yet a man comes and does maintenance on the property every so often, only to disappear for long periods of time.

How cool would it be to talk to the guy who holds the keys to the Kettle House?  Why doesn’t a citizen of Galveston approach the guy next time he shows up and ask him some questions?  If any brave soul is willing to do so, they are guaranteed an exclusive interview and some mad props here on You Live Where.  Until then, I guess we’ll just have to speculate as to why someone would build a house that looks like a tea kettle, and if the weirdo internet rumor is true that it actually works like a tea kettle (?!?!) and if it is, in fact, designed to float during a flood.

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Once upon a time a population of about 1200 people lived in the valley town of Potosi in Venezuela.  One day, the president arrived on a helicopter and informed everyone in the little town that they’d have to move – the government was flooding the little town to build a hydroelectric dam.  People had to leave their houses, most of which they’d built with their own hands.  They had to leave their church, outside of which most of their relatives were buried.  They were all relocated to different parts of Venezuela.   The town was flooded, and all that remained visible was the steeple of their beloved church.

Steeple of the Potosi Church

Along came a weather phenomenon called El Nino.  El Nino made floods happen in some places, droughts in others.  In Potosi, it came in the form of a drought.  In early 2010, the town of Potosi emerged.  Most of the houses were gone, but the outside of the church still stands.

Skeleton of the Potosi Church

The Difference

The town was, obviously, uninhabitable when it first resurfaced, and there are no clear reports on what the Venezuelan government wants to do about the situation.  But the fact that even a little bit of the town survived its 25-year submersion is quite remarkable.  One might hope that the people of Potosi can someday return home.