Boing Boing reader Molly Block shot a wonderful set of photos documenting The Beer Can House in Houston, Texas. She shared them in our Boing Boing Flickr Pool.
She writes:
Native Houstonian John Milkovisch started the project in 1968. Following Mr. Milkovisch’s death in 1988, and the death of his wife Mary, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, a Houston-based non-profit arts organization, purchased the house and later restored it.
From the Beer Can House’s Web site:
John Milkovisch, a retired upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, started his project now known as the Beer Can House in 1968 when he began inlaying thousands of marbles, rocks, and metal pieces into concrete and redwood to form unique landscaping features. When the entire front and back yard were completely covered because he “got sick of mowing the grass”, he turned to the house itself and began adding aluminum siding – aluminum beer can siding, that is. Over the next 18 years the house disappeared under a cover of flattened beer cans for both practical and decorative reasons. Garlands made of cut beer cans hanging from the roof edges not only made the house sing in the wind, but also lowered the family’s energy bills. Ripley’s Believe It or Not estimated that over 50,000 cans adorn this monument to recycling.
The Beer Can House is a permanent exhibit of the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art.
Address: 222 Malone Street, Houston, Texas, 77007.
Thanks, Molly!