Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Nice Tree House ;)

Backyard treehouse survives Manhattan legal fight
Melinda Hackett

NEW YORK – In the countryside, in the suburbs or even in the leafier districts of New York's outer boroughs, a treehouse would hardly raise an eyebrow. But in a historic Manhattan neighborhood whose residents have included Mark Twain and Eleanor Roosevelt, it raised hackles.

Shortly after Melinda Hackett put up the round, cedar treehouse for her girls in a broad-trunked London Plane tree in her tiny Greenwich Village backyard, a neighbor called about "a structure in rear which is nailed to a tree" and "looks unsafe," with no construction permit posted, according to a complaint filed with the city.

"I got home and the police were at the door," says Hackett, a 49-year-old artist. "Then firefighters came."

[Incredible: Mirrored tree house in Sweden is 'invisible']

After months of legal battles, Hackett triumphed. Her girls' treehouse, apparently unique in one of America's most densely populated areas, can not only stay — it's been granted an official permit as part of a district with landmark status.

Though the treehouse is only five years old, Hackett's townhouse is from the 1860s, and she bought it from musician David Byrne of the Talking Heads. The city's Landmarks Perservation Commission decided to grant the treehouse a permit because it's part of a historic landmark district.

ttp://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/New-York-City-Tree-House/ss/events/us/102710nyctreehouse