The Steel House Saga | Hacker News Reader

The Steel House Saga

texasmonthly.com

42 pointsapophasis13 comments

I went to Texas Tech and made the pilgrimage to Ransom Canyon. I remember thinking it looked sorta like Majin Buu's house from DBZ. It's nice seeing that someone is doing something with the house, it's not like anyone knows what Bruno's final vision would look like and it was a little sad seeing the obviously unfinished steel house overlooking the lake.

I don't have much else to add, but it's fun seeing Lubbock show up on HN.

I like the idea of renting out the house. This would ensure that the maximum number of people get to appreciate its beauty.

It suffers from a classic architectural excess - shell looks cool from the outside, at the expense of a usable interior. It's a metal sculpture which happens to have an interior.

https://goo.gl/maps/enoWjkuBjSsumt5J7

That street view footage is from 2007, for some reason. The next street over is from 2013: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.5300075,-101.6773339,3a,75y,...

I guess we should always be suspicious of article photos (cropping, stacking, filters), but all photos in the article make it look like this sits in the wilderness.. this street view is a sobering alternative. Strange that they didn't consider the meter (just standing out by the street unprotected and undisguised), garbage storage (sitting randomly on the lot, no path, or curb accommodations) or parking (not that you must have a car).

Turning it into a short-term rental may not be dignified, but it will ensure that more people get to see and enjoy it. I mean, some of the most popular rentals are treehouses. This, designed by a sculptor, made of a unique material, overlooking a lake, with a long (notorious?) history behind it, is going to be very popular.

I'm not saying it's on the same level of importance as Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water". But imagine if you could spend a couple of nights in that masterpiece - what would it be worth to you?

The article notes that

> Corten is a good conductor of heat, which means that it must be heavily insulated against Lubbock’s hot summers and cold winters.

But is the house insulated at all? The pictures appear to show just raw steel, which implies that it's going to a roasting oven in summer and a freezing coffin in the winter.

Seems like a perfect opportunity for a brilliant, successful, and slightly eccentric SV multi-millionaire to create the perfect retreat / resort / hideaway in the shell of an architectural marvel.

Just sayin'.

Why is the interior so rusty? Where it stands it should be relatively dry, outside rust ok, but the interior?

Probably because it was all exposed during the 35 year construction process.

Humidity and condensation. They said he lived there for a few months and probably spent a bunch of time inside over the years and says it has bathrooms. Any breathing, cooking or bathing will release humidity, if the steel reaches dew point you will get condensation on the walls which would match outside temps since it sounds like they are not insulated.

Wonderful story, thanks.

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