Baltimore Tree House
The wooden structure next to Laurie and Peter Stubbs' house outside Baltimore is made out of trees and is nestled in the woods but it isn't technically a tree house. "The trees here are basically poles with very high branches--90 feet high!--so there was no way we were going to be building in the trees," Laurie says. "We've been trying to think of a non-tree house name--the Fort, Tree Fort, Bamboo Fort--but nothing's really stuck." Plus, it's not just for Stubb's children, daughters Abigail, 9, and Emily, 13. "Kids are small for a very short time and then they grow up and go to college and you're left with this structure," she says. "We wanted it to have a use after they're gone--a place we can sit in and read or have a drink and entertain company."
The tree house, for lack of a better name, comprises two eight-foot-by-eight-foot platforms that create two floors. The lower one is accessed by a ramp and the upper one by a wooden ladder. The structure is screened with bamboo shoots, placed in close proximity to one another on the front and spaced wider and wider apart as they wrap around the sides to the back. "The idea was to screen the view of the driveway in the front," Stubb says, "but when you're inside, you don't want to feel like you're in a box. You want to feel like you're in the woods and see out."
To see more images of the tree house and read more about its design and use, please visit our slideshow.
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Interesting solution. Drawbridge can be operable my a block and tackle system similar to those on the old sailing ships. Concerned about numerous typo's in this group of articles, since you are in the communication business...... Still, an EXCELLENT magazine!
Tree houses are great, a group in England published a great picture book about their business. More tree houses please. AND, if I was building in New Orleans, my house would be on a foundation that was above sea level, or a water proof first floor. This is the part I don't understand. Where's the intelligence of living below sea level on the gulf in America, (you know what I mean). Thanks
Nice idea.What did you put on the bamboo to reserve it?I do alot of things with bamboo and am always looking for things that will make it last longer.
After reading this more ,I would sugest that you make wooden trusses under the bridge and honey comb material for the top. This with a counterbalance system would make a strong ,light weight,and easy to raise set up.
Mr. David Horne, I totally agree with you. This is not really the best platform for this discussion, but I do not believe that rebuilding in that which nature took back (or tried to) is sustainable. Suspending buildings as in water villages in Asia, or high foundation systems like Venice, could be considered sustainable because nature can then "be" and humans have to work around it. Regarding this wonderful non-tree house, I LOVE it! My kids would be thrilled to have something like this. It is great and I love that the adults can enjoy it too.
Well, most of the people who live in New Orleans are exactly of a sane mind...if you know what I mean. ;-) The rest of America just sits back and wonders why would anybody ever live there...Then, again, why would anyone every live in the desert near no water mass?
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