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TELEPHONE POLE HOUSE The Ritts House

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SYMBOLISM           PHILOSOPHY           RESIDENTIAL DESIGNS  -  MAJOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS           EXPERIMENTAL           THEORETICAL          OTHER WORKS          BOOKS & DVDS          SITE MAP          CONTACT

HOME          CHRONOLOGY          ABOUT THE ARCHITECT          CHILDHOOD          EDUCATION          EARLY WORKS          ARCHITECTURE          NANOARCHITECTURE          TEACHING POSITIONS          AWARDS

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Telephone Pole House

A PALACE OF POLES


In Greenwich, Connecticut, of all conventional towns, was built the Ritts House, or Telephone Pole House, in 1968. Some 104 40-foot telephone poles, shipped by flatcar from Oregon, braced the house into one side of a steep ravine.


The prevailing experience, as one looks out at the already existing hemlock forest, is that of actually living up in the trees. The poles are arranged in clusters and braced together, notched and bolted by old Norwegian boatbuilders. Some poles rise from concrete footings at inclines to support the floor platforms, crisscross to define divisions of functional space, some poles act as stringers to the stairs that go up to the upper loft, and some poles thrust out to support a cantilevered roof. Glass is scribed around the poles that extend from inside to outside. All air ducts are exposed, as is the electrical wiring connecting outlets and switch boxes.

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Living in a tree is a primordial symbolic experience in which human beings can share vicariously in the agility of flight and footwork accessible principally to birds and climbing animals. Upon the numerous stairs and platforms of various levels, one participates in a primordial life that psychologically relieves the city-commuting owner from the madding urban crowd. 

     -  John M Johansen, FAIA