4 'ultimate' tree houses built in Greenville

Admit it.

As a child, you wished you could spend more time in a tree house.

As an adult, you still do . . . though you wouldn't mind having a few little ones in tow for the experience.

Well, here's your chance. Four "ultimate cool green tree houses" for children of all ages have been built along the nature trails at the Roper Mountain Science Center, to be officially opened during the center's Second Saturday on July 12, where you can visit all of them and vote for your favorite. After that, regular hours will be 8:30-5 Monday through Friday. Admission is free.

What can you do? Climb a rope ladder to an elevated deck. Check out the surrounding forest. Move to another deck via a canopy bridge that lets you feel the way small animals must as they traverse real tree canopies from one tree to another without ever touching the ground. For returning to the forest floor, try out the fireman's pole or the tunnel slide. Fun, huh?

Educational, too.

As a facility of the Greenville school system, the Roper Mountain Science Center has long hosted classes of elementary and middle school students who do hands-on work in the center's labs and classrooms, with the intent of getting them excited about science and technology. But the notion of tree houses that could combine physical activity with the science program was something different. "The idea was to have an interesting interactive outdoor attraction for students to use during the week, that would also be attractive to the public and useful for teaching science," said development director Tommie Reece.

Each of the four structures has elements that illustrate scientific principles along with the good time. Put a few items into the bucket pulley and haul them up to another level, and you're learning how a pulley system works. Make your way up the sloped walkway to the Rainwater Platform and you're looking at part of the water cycle. Check out the shade plants on a living roof, irrigated by rainwater, to learn something about sustainability.

The concept of tree houses for fun and teaching isn't original. Design competitions for such structures have been done around the country, said Reece, including in Atlanta where winning designs were chosen but not built. Here, a call was sent out to teams of architects, builders and contractors to submit drawings and (if chosen) build "your childhood dream house" on one of six wooded sites at the Science Center. Designs had to have an eye not only to science and entertainment, but also to protecting the trees, using easy-to-maintain "green" materials whenever possible – and of course, safety (which is to say, among other things, that if there's a space big enough for a child to get through, it's big enough for an adult, too). At least one elevated level of each house is handicap accessible.

Although the project is called "Out on a Limb," don't expect the sorts of ramshackle clubhouses popular in old films, precariously perched high in the branches, accessible only by rickety ladders nailed into the trees. Here, the goal of doing no damage to mature trees meant that no anchoring devices could be driven into them. Each house had to be secured and stabilized above the ground some other way. Students and advisors at the Fine Arts Center's Art of Architecture reviewed the four drawings to be built, each one quite different from the others. The results have been uniquely creative.

Forest Fort, designed by Lena Roper (Neal Prince Studio) and Matt Tindall, really does look a bit like a fort, with tree trunks encircled by log-cabin-like walls easy to climb from inside or out, a canopy bridge up high, and a root maze at ground level, inviting creative play even from a distance.

Treetop Clinic, byJulie Weber, Sam Pruitt and Jeff Fogle from Batson Associates, and Tom Bauer from Triangle Construction Co, focuses on environmental issues — the water cycle and solar cycle, a deck that demonstrates the sun's path, an overlook with views that invite discussion of the plant life below.

Tree-Forms, by Chris Stone and Matthew Santilli from LSEP, and Chuck Saylors from MB Kahn, mimics three actual trees – an oak, a willow, and a pecan — with decks, ramps, and spiral stairs, and a combination of bamboo canes, PVC pipes and recycled aluminum tubes that act as wind chimes.

Anatomy of a TREE House, by Stuart Stenger and Scott Powell (Craig Gaulden Davis architects), D. S. Doherty (Mavin Construction), Dwayne Stickler (Palmetto Playsets) and Bret Barest (Carolina Custom Kitchen and Bath), uses elements that resemble the trees that inspired it, with exposed concrete "roots," a wraparound "squirrel's nest" that allows a real tree to grow through it – and plenty of recreational elements like the "just-for-fun" slide.

In addition to the time and effort involved in creating the designs, the architect/builder teams were also responsible for getting the houses built. Some of the labor was provided by volunteers, and some of the material costs were offset by assistance from GBS Building Supply and VELLUX America Inc.

Even so, the competition demanded a huge commitment of both time and money from the participants.

Stuart Stenger of Craig Gaulden Davis architects said he saw it as a charitable contribution for a good cause. Architectural designer Lena Roper of the Neal Prince Studio agreed, but also had another take on the project.

"It was an opportunity to be more playful," she said. "An architectural designer doesn't always get the chance to do something whimsical, to have the freedom to think of something and if you can make it work, fine. I had this half-baked idea of building around a tree trunk. So I took a couple of weekends and did the design. An important part of my design process was to think from a child's perspective. It was a lot of fun!"

Tree-Forms

Forest Fort

Treetop Clinic

Anatomy of a TREE House