Crazy On Tap - Heinlein House

Heinlein House

I came across this today.

I'm sure most people here know that renowned sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein designed and built his own home in Santa Cruz, where he lived from 1967 until shortly before he died. It's famous for it's owner/builder, and for being round:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=5830+Bonny+Doon+Road,+Santa+Cruz,+California&layer=&sll=37.060194,-122.156725&sspn=0.007243,0.014591&ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=37.059184,-122.158484&spn=0.001811,0.003648&t=h&om=1

Some more pictures are here:

http://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/history/bonnydoon1.html

Ward
July 31st, 2007 5:45pm

Wow, thanks for that. I understand his 100th birthday was just recently -- though he died some time ago.

SaveTheHubble
July 31st, 2007 6:09pm

He died just before his funeral. What irony.

heartsheep
July 31st, 2007 6:25pm

He was a great man.

Colm
July 31st, 2007 6:32pm

And in case you've never seen it, here's a Popular Mechanics article from 1952 about the house before the one in Santa Cruz. This one was in Colorado Springs, he and his wife also designed it themselves, acted as contractors and did lots of the work.

http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/pm652-art-hi.html

Ward
July 31st, 2007 6:35pm

That is very interesting. He built it in 1950 and it looks very retro - just like it was a tract home built in 1965.

The article calls it futuristic in 1952, which is true, although Falling Water was 1934, so that sort of flat design influenced him obviously.

Practical Economist
July 31st, 2007 7:26pm

Oh, he had a centralized media room that had speaker feeds to every room in the house. Surely in 1950 he was among the first if not the first to do that, it's still very rare to need a router room.

Practical Economist
July 31st, 2007 7:29pm

The PM article doesn't mention the bomb shelter. I didn't look hard, but I couldn't find the web page that had some pictures of it.

Ward
July 31st, 2007 7:50pm

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