Tree houses have grown beyond a few haphazardly assembled scraps of lumber nailed to a trunk. While tree house builders still use leftover materials, new techniques allow large, amenity-filled structures to be built without endangering the tree or the users.
Lofty Collaboration The design and construction of this tree house received input from a collection of experts, including tree house engineers, a landscape designer, architect, trim carpenter, carving artist, and glass blower. The group didn’t rush into anything, either. It took a year to choose the right spot on this 150-acre ranch near Fargo, N.D., then another three years of contemplating from a platform set in the tree, says landscape designer Michael Allmendinger. The homeowner wanted the tree house to blend with the site’s wild nature, so property manager/carpenter Brad Berger trimmed nearby limbs and formed them into stairs and railings. “I hand-stripped the wood and fitted the pieces together with mortise-and-tenon joints,” says Berger. “And I had to use a special ripping chain to get a rough but flat cut on the treads.” The result is a stairway that looks like fallen deadwood. Rustic touches continue with cedar planks cut on a cant to get a wavy edge. The look may be rough but the structure is high-tech. The Dakota plains get gusts around 60 miles an hour, says Allmendinger, so the house is engineered to move with the tree. Builder/Engineer: TreeHouse Workshop, Seattle; Designer: Chris Holly, Fargo, N.D.; Landscape designer: Land Elements, Fargo; Carpenter/Photographer: Brad Berger, Fargo.
Green Pieces Everything except the copper panels on this tree house was reclaimed. Wood for the octagonal walls did former duty as olive oil tanks, the floor is salvaged Brazilian hardwood, and a nearby fallen tree was pruned and shaped into a branchy tunnel stairway. Roderick Romero gathered discarded pieces of stained glass and formed them into an operable window. All of the other windows were also rescued from the trash. Romero’s inspiration for the tree house shape was a Moroccan lantern: “This owner has a passion for Ottoman architecture, so she loved the concept of a lantern hanging in the trees.” And hang it does. The 18-foot-tall structure sits 25 feet above the ground supported by three eucalyptus trees. A fairly new tree house technology called a Garnier Limb (GL) was used. A GL is a modified bolt that can withstand a load of up to 8,000 pounds and has a flange that fits snugly into the trunk to prevent rot or insects from getting into the tree. Builder/designer: Romero Studios, Stuyvesant Station, N.Y.; Photographer: Romero Studios.
Branch Magic This Texas homeowner wanted to surprise her daughter with this multi-level tree fort. But builder Roland Hooper laughs that the owner and her friends spend just as much time in it as the kids. Three decks in the air and a large one floating just above the forest floor provide ample space for hanging out. A pulley system helps to haul supplies up. Cradled in the branches of a pecan tree, the structure maintains a child’s scale to enhance its magical feel. Whimsical touches like leaf light fixtures and mismatched millwork were chosen as needed instead of being planned ahead because the owner wanted the process to be spontaneous. A rope swing, zip-line, fireman’s pole, and suspended bridge add to the fun and fantasy. Safety wasn’t sacrificed, however. A cage surrounds the trap door on the top platform while a water hose and fire extinguisher are within reach. Builder/designer: Roland Hooper, BeeCave, Texas; Structural engineer: Victor Wehman, San Antonio, Texas; Photographer: Tre Dunham.
