Tree Houses Designed to Inspire Kids

Packet Online – June 04, 2008
By Ilene Dube

Ever since the Swiss Family Robinson erected a well-outfitted tree house from salvaged parts of a ship, humankind has built fantasies around an aerie amid the leaves. From backyard projects that kids create from salvaged parts to more elaborate “treesorts” in the sky — complete with lavatory, shower and fully applianced kitchens — arboreal dwellings simultaneously fulfill the needs for shelter and fun.

For architects, tree houses present a chance to build a fantastical structure. There are geodesic dome tree houses, eco tree houses, universally accessible tree houses, bed & breakfast tree houses, tree house rentals, even “extreme tree houses.” You don’t have to be a tree hugger to love tree houses, although it helps to have a reverence for nature and being outdoors.

The Tyler Arboretum in Media, Pa., is exhibiting 17 houses created by Delaware Valley architects, landscape architects, buildings, students and artists as part of Totally Terrific Treehouses, on view through Sept. 28. Arriving there after a not especially pretty drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, you realize it’s not just about tree houses but about being in nature — even if you have to inhale burning asphalt and truck fumes to get there.

The Tyler Arboretum is on 650 acres with more than 20 miles of marked wooded trails and is one of the oldest and largest arboreta in the northeastern United States. Expanding on Webster’s definition, Tyler Executive Director Rick Colbert says “an arboretum is a collection of woody plants used for display, education and scientific purposes, and they are often labeled.”

It is a living museum in which the collection is plants, and the mission is to protect the plants for exhibit and research. “Trees are the heart and soul of this organization,” he adds.

The land was purchased by a fellow Quaker from William Penn in the 1600s, and was home to eight generations of the family until Laura Tyler bequeathed it to the public. Two brothers, Jacob and Minshall Painter, planted more than 1,000 trees on the property in the 1800s, and more than 20 of these remain, four of which are “champion trees” — officially recognized as the largest of their kind in Pennsylvania.

Among its horticultural heritage collection is the Wister Rhododendron Garden, started by the arboretum’s first director, Dr. John Wister, in the 1950s. It includes 1,500 specimens representing 486 distinct cultivars and unnamed hybrids.

”Tree houses are a way to connect people and trees,” says Tyler’s Director of Public Programs Betsey Ney. “Today, fewer kids have a connection to nature — they’re not getting outside for unstructured play, and they’re not experiencing nature on the soccer field — and tree houses are a way to get them excited.

”Children are the decision makers of the next generation, and if we can’t tear them away from video games our whole planet is in trouble.”

Treeology is not a term you’ll find on dictionary.com, but it’s a word Ms. Ney and her colleagues bandy about to describe the study and enjoyment of trees. “The whole concept of treeology is to connect people to nature,” she says.

Bob Dean, a potter at the Community Arts Center of Wallingford, built a Hobbit House out of locally dug clay. “Secret woodland creatures come in all sizes, so there are two little ones as well,” he says. There is a “Home Sweet Home” tile for the front door, and a tile with a poem: “We live with the Runts and Roots/ Our Dreams Rustle/ with the Leaves.”

Through the windows, one can look inside and see a clay table set with plates and flatware, chairs, bed and a TV with rabbit-ears antenna. “Secret woodland creatures love TV,” he says. These woodland creatures are watching Judge Judy.

”We think of life above the ground, but when I’m digging for clay I think of the mycelium, fungus, roots and clay bed underground,” Mr. Dean says.

Nearby, a full-size replica of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond cabin has been erected pondside. With cedar shake roof and siding, it has vintage windows with wavy glass, salvaged from a junkyard, that fit the proportions of the 19th-century American Transcendentalist. Builder Mike Dolan says a tree house takes you outside society and gives a new vantage point on life.

Andrew Brehm’s “Treegloo” looks like an igloo made of bamboo. Using locally harvested materials, the furniture maker and sculptor says it can be composted after it serves its purpose.

While all the tree houses exalt nature, there are themes here as well. Kyle’s Treehouse is an organization based in Newtown Square, Pa., dedicated to empowering people touched by autism to make effective choices. Rachel Lange has suspended varying styles and sizes of hammocks from the trees, some within reach and others for wondering how they can be reached. “Each hammock represents a different person with autism and how it is treated, because there is no one singular treatment for autism,” she says.

The carpentry students at Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades in Media spent the past three years rebuilding homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. Their tree house is a triptych — the three houses, connected by a cat walk, represent an uninhabitable, gutted shell; a house to display photographs of their outreach efforts; and a fully restored home.

Ron Langsdorf, an artist who does large-scale installations based on domestic situations and relationships, has worked with staff members from the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts to create a space where visitors can experience “one tree in a visually intimate way,” according to the artist statement. These “tree house” structures, made of composite decking material so no trees had to be sacrificed, have viewing squares that crop a scene for the person who positions herself inside.

”It’s less about the tree house and more about the interaction with viewing a tree,” says Mr. Langsdorf, who recently completed his master’s in fine arts from the University of Delaware. The project was influenced by the work of James Turrell “to experience something as simple as the light or the sky,” he says.

Walking along the route to these tree houses, one encounters a giant sequoia tree, the largest on the East Coast. More than 150 years old, it is the signature tree of the arboretum. Its double trunk was formed when a Christmas tree thief topped the sequoia in 1895, according to park literature. Native to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, sequoias can grow to 300 feet. It’s not yet known how tall one can grow on the East Coast because it could take 1,000 years for it to reach such a height, according to Mr. Colbert.

A structure that looks like a tree house is actually not a tree house but a “raptor roost,” the highest spot in the arboretum where raptors eye their prey.

We walk through the Meadow Maze, an open area that is mown into a labyrinth (not a true maze that has dead ends) so visitors can walk through a wildflower meadow without fear of stepping on ticks.

”There could be no life without plants,” says Ms. Ney. “They capture the energy from the sun and air that animals eat and are, in turn, eaten. Plants are not background but are key to our survival. So if you live in a new suburban lot, plant trees — they provide beauty and sanctuary and so many things in our lives.”

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