Nice Tree House ;)

Backyard treehouse survives Manhattan legal fight

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press Verena Dobnik, Associated Press – Wed Oct 27, 12:31 pm ET

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

Movin' On Up...to a Deluxe Treehouse with Style

Movin' On Up...to a Deluxe Treehouse with Style

Posted Feb 3rd 2010 9:14AM by Kaomi Goetz 
Filed under: Design

Not ready to completely move-out of your parents' house and give up access to free laundry? Why not build something in their backyard? And if there's a cluster of healthy pine or magnolia trees, German design firm,Baumraum may be your next phone call.

Baumraum has designed some amazingtreehouses in their native Germany and other locales that make us want to ditch our urban shoebox abodes for one of these sky-high dwellings.
Baumraum specializes in arboreal homes about the size of a small caravan or RV trailer. Each unit is made to order to fit clients' needs, so anything from size, insulation, wiring, built-in furniture, mini-kitchens and flatscreen TVs are all up for discussion. Even a flushable toilet is not off-limits if there's a nearby water supply and existing sewage features on the property.

The cabin shells and interiors are pre-fabricated in Baumraum's shop. Larchwood or Oregon pine are often used in the exteriors, but they don't limit themselves to wood; light metal, textiles and synthetics are also considered in their designs.


What Baumraum won't do is build something that will destroy the natural life of a tree. Instead of using bolts or nails, they secure the treehouses with steel cables and textile belts that aren't damaging and encourage continued growth of the host trees. 

Owning a Baumraum original costs anywhere from $25,000 to nearly $200,000, so you may need Mom's cooking and that free laundry after all in order to afford one. But from the looks of it, you're guaranteed to have some of the best views in your neighborhood.

http://www.rentedspaces.com/2010/02/03/movin-on-up-to-a-deluxe-treehouse-with-style/