I’m having trouble concentrating on work again today, which is bad because I have three articles due. In passing the time unproductively, I happened upon a list of 100 of the World’s Strangest Buildings, displayed in two parts of 50 each. The Beer Can House, in Houston, Texas, made number 23 on the second list, making it the 73rd strangest building.
I visited the house after CBC in 2007 and took a bunch of photos. The house was the hobby of its owner, John Milkovisch, who began working on it in 1968 and kept adding to it for the next eighteen years, using an estimated 50,000 beer cans. Today it is owned by a local arts foundation, The Orange House Center For Visionary Art. They recently renovated it, inside and out, and now it’s open to the public. I visited it before the renovations were complete, so my photos look a little different than the one at the bottom, which is presumably more recent. They even have a new website up, which is new since my visit, too.
But the other strange houses that made the list are cool, too, in fact many are pretty amazing, especially if you’re a fan of architecture. If you love cool and/or unusual buildings, check them out. The beer can house is in Part 2, but Part 1 has some awesome architecture, too. The crooked house in Poland was their choice for number one. Worth a look, in my opinion.
The beer can house at night, presumably after renovation. Photo by J. Smallwood.