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The Raven Tower At 310 North St.


zaphod

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Raven Tower Metal High-Rise with Weather Vane.

Anyone have pictures of the "Crows Nest". At least I think that's what its called.

You can see from Interstate-45 just north of downtown and it looks like a short airport control tower and has a large weathervane type thing on top.

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  • 1 month later...

A guy I used to know is the nephew of the guy living there. His uncle built it as an observatory in case of an invasion by "unknown" enemies...it is the biggest trailer trash piece of crap on a stick on the planet. Like the smell of dog piss and rotting mold? Have I got a place for you.

P S: The view WOULD be great if the windows were clean enough to look out of-I'm guessing..

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maybe a programmer or 3d artist working from home for the people who make counterstrike or ghost recon is living there for inspiration.... :D

And i cant believe nobody has any pictures of that place.

i cant find a website on it anywhere.

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  • 2 years later...

On one of the other related threads...

"A guy I used to know is the nephew of the guy living there. His uncle built it as an observatory in case of an invasion by "unknown" enemies...it is the biggest trailer trash piece of crap on a stick on the planet. Like the smell of dog piss and rotting mold? Have I got a place for you."

What a great combination of strange architecture and conspiratorial paranoia. Previously, I had visions of Farrah Fawcett posters, wood paneling, brown shag carpet and bongs. But now I see maps of hidden government complexes, walls of short wave radios and diagrams of secret societies and the institutions they have infiltrated.

I'm liking Houston more every day.

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  • 7 months later...

Do any of you fellow architecture junkies know anything about that house on I-45 N (Heights area) just south of the Houston Ave./N. Main exit, that's elevated like a tower with a huge weather-vane (I think) on the roof? It kind of a baby-puke yellow structure, square, looks like it's made out of metal. I know that house has been there more than 20 years but I know nothing about it. Do you? Or has there been a previous discussion thread I could follow? I know someone out there knows! :lol: You guys know everything. I love HAIF.

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  • 2 months later...

I almost wreck everytime I drive down 45 and try to get a good look at this place and figure out what the heck it is. So interesting. Any new info on this place? I need to take a pic so everyone knows what I'm talking about. I think it has a rooster on top too? On the east side of 45 north between downtown and n. main. looks like a teeny tiny air traffic control tower

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I almost wreck everytime I drive down 45 and try to get a good look at this place and figure out what the heck it is. So interesting. Any new info on this place? I need to take a pic so everyone knows what I'm talking about. I think it has a rooster on top too? On the east side of 45 north between downtown and n. main. looks like a teeny tiny air traffic control tower

I was always told by my family members that it was a "penthouse"?? But whoever or whatever lives there has never remodeled the place and it's kind of an eyesore now. If anyone finds out, it'd be interesting to hear about it!

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I wonder what the point of the rooster on top is?

Weathervanes historically had a rooster on them or (don't laugh) a "Weather Cock". I'd wiki it, but I'm getting out of here for the day.

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Ah ha! I did giggle when I read your response.

I drove by this place yesterday and the ground level of the property is massively cluttered with junk. I wish a reporter from the Chronicle or some other publication would interview the owner of this place and get the scoop on the vision behind it - That would be interesting.

Does anyone remember this place when it was under construction? I bet neighbors were like what in the...?

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I hope I'm not asking about a building already talked about. But I had no idea how to even start searching for info about this place.

Does anyone know the story behind this building?

829755683_5e70ba1193.jpg

It is off of North St, near the 45N. Google Map link here...

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Houston,+TX,...p;z=19&om=1

Houston's own REDNECK HI-RISE!!!Time to count the empty beer cans thrown down below? I wonder:ELEVATOR or STAIRS? Window units or chill water! HA!

Only in TEXAS...

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Taken as a compliment, of course! Ever notice how when the internet demographic thinks of Houston, 75% of their mental reference points are exclusively to features in the Southwest quadrant of the loop (Enron Field in the northeast corner, Northwest Mall in the northwest)? And how the cityscape gets a lot less sterile once and only once you get out of any respectable 'world-class' areas?

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The salient point is not what one thinks is world-class, but that the territory whose concerns are largely national and international (not many people know how many offshore platforms in Africa, and how much of the national circulatory system, is controlled from nondescript blocks in Southeast Texas) are much more arid in terms of fitting human inhabitation in all its detail - surprisingly impoverished by comparison to the parts of town whose everyday concerns are primarily local. If that fitness seems to oppose intuition, then maybe something is missing from our standards.

Which is interesting that it could be, since Texas (and by extension Houston) does, much as you say, occupy the role of that second place in relationship to the rest of the country. The less we veer away from the way of life of the place, the more intelligently and healthily we will be able to embrace it. (If a person stops short after the sense of humor and doesn't want to think about it more - most of Houston's 'urbanists' can't go two sentences without apologetic irony, and irony is a way of avoiding useful focus - then they miss the part that's worth dwelling on).

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Ah ha! I did giggle when I read your response.

I drove by this place yesterday and the ground level of the property is massively cluttered with junk. I wish a reporter from the Chronicle or some other publication would interview the owner of this place and get the scoop on the vision behind it - That would be interesting.

Does anyone remember this place when it was under construction? I bet neighbors were like what in the...?

I'm answering my own question...sort of

A co-worker of mine told me that this place was built in the late 70's and that the Houston Post interviewed the owner. She couldn't remember specific details.

I would always notice this place while riding in the backseat of my parent's car as a kid. I just picture a spooky guy all cooped up :ph34r:

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  • 1 month later...
I'm answering my own question...sort of

A co-worker of mine told me that this place was built in the late 70's and that the Houston Post interviewed the owner. She couldn't remember specific details.

I would always notice this place while riding in the backseat of my parent's car as a kid. I just picture a spooky guy all cooped up :ph34r:

I'm happy to report that this place survived Ike...at least for the most part! I was curious about any possible damages and made sure to catch a peek as I drove down 45 yesterday.

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  • 3 months later...

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