Here at Hanley Wood, we don’t see treehouses all that often in design competitions, but last summer at the 2014 Builder’s Choice and Custom Home Design Awards, Los Angeles-based Rockefeller Partners’ exquisitely crafted grownup treehouse, aka Banyan Drive Treehouse, nabbed one of the big prizes, a Grand Award. So, we were intrigued by Curbed’s recent feature on the treehouse–a form of architecture, which, one could argue, is the ultimate fantasy Room of One’s Own and goes way beyond the man-cave. (The owner of the treehouse that won the Custom Home Grand Award is, by the way, a woman.) Curbed’s Rachel B. Doyle writes: Some people may make fun of them, but as far as midlife crisis purchases go, adult treehouses beat all other micro-dwellings by a landslide. Far from the simple platforms redolent of childhood, the latest crop of inventive treehouses come in all shapes and sizes, and many were built by firms that exclusively focus on arboreal architecture. There are now treehouse churches, a growing portfolio of treehouse hotels, treehouse microbreweries, and even a treehouse-inspired facility for cancer patients. One man built his girlfriend a treehouse, and then proposed to her by carving “will you marry me?” onto the side of one of its wooden planks.
So, before you brush them off as mere folly, check out these treehouses. They may even make you reconsider your land-loving existence. Read more….
