Unlike in Up however, the real life properties that find themselves in this situation don’t just float away, and their refusal to be moved has earned them the moniker of Nail Houses.

Edith Macefield moved into her home in Seattle in 1966, and in recent years turned down many increasingly large offers from developers looking to build on her land. In the end the developers decided to build the complex anyway, leaving her home boxed in on three sides. In the Street View images we can see the construction underway all around her little home, with her distinctive blue car parked outside visible even from satellite.

Edith sadly died in June last year, but since then her home was actually used as part of a publicity stunt promoting Pixar’s movie, and remains for the moment, as a reminder of what can be achieved by refusing to be steamrolled.

In Washington D.C., a Mr. Austin Spriggs reportedly turned down an offer of 3 million dollars for his property as it was directly in the way of a massive new development. Mr. Spriggs was apparently seeking a loan to open up a pizza restaurant on the premises, but when the Street View car passed, this was clearly still some way from becoming a reality.

It turns out that there are people all over the place who have decided, for the sake of pride, morals, or plain stubbornness, to remain in their homes no matter what. Here’s the home of a man who lives in the car park of the St. Alexius hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota. I wonder if he gets free parking?

Not even the biggest of companies can always get their own way either. At Microsoft’s Redmond West campus there’s one solitary private property, which was apparently left alone under the agreement that the house could stay there until the present owners died.

The phenomenon of “homeowner holdout” isn’t just constrained to private homes either. At Tokyo’s Narita Airport, the proposed layout of the tarmac was completely ruined by several farmers, who steadfastly refused to sell their land to the airport. You can see how the runways weave around the various farms that get in their way, as well as being split into tiny, useless segments by other bits of farmland.

I’m sure that this post only scratches the surface of this topic, so do you know of any nail houses in your area, and what’s the story behind them?

Wikipedia has more info on Nail Houses, and we wrote a story in 2006 about The Man Who Lives in the Middle of the M62. Thanks to Boing Boing and Deputy Dog.

Locations: District of Columbia, Japan, North Dakota, Washington / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings

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When fully operational, the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex (SRMC) contained a phased-array radar on each of the pyramid’s four faces – providing a complete wide-angle view capable of tracking incoming enemy missiles up to 360 km away.

In the event of an attack from an intercontinental missile, the site could respond with one of its thirty nuclear Spartan or sixteen Sprint missiles, protecting itself, the 50 or so people in Nekoma, and the Grand Forks Air Force Base just 100 km to its southeast.

On the 2nd of October 1975 – only one day after the site became fully operational – Congress voted to shutdown the program, and within a year the radar building had been gutted and the missiles removed.

Despite currently being in “caretaker” status, Google Earth’s historical imagery of the complex suggests it may have been secretly repurposed by the military! (Links to historical imagery require the Google Earth Plugin).

In 2006, one of the sewage/cooling lakes was filled in…

…but a different cooling pool was built between 1990 and 1997.

More information at the unofficial SRMSC website, and there’s an informative video on Youtube.

Locations: North Dakota / Categories: Buildings

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While it’s probably true that if a 4th dimension were discovered then you’d see it here first, this is actually an active missile launch-site in North Dakota that houses the destructive one-and-a-half ton Minuteman III nuclear missile.

This is an intercontinental-range, silo-based, solid propellant ballistic missile system. Sounds dangerous! Even more shocking, a quick Google maps search of “Minuteman III ICBM Launch Facility” along with a random letter of the alphabet such as the letter a or the letter v will show hundreds of these launch sites, mostly situated in the central United States. These missiles have a range of 13,000km – which is over a quarter of the circumference of the planet!

One reader suggested the images bring to mind the Candy Land board game, but to me it’s more along the lines of an eerie backdrop for a new Willy Wonka movie. Either way, I can’t figure out why they chose to replace the images in this way.

What do you think is the reasoning behind this?

Thanks to Bob P.

Locations: North Dakota / Categories: Weirdness

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Currently standing at a staggering 688 m, construction of Burj Dubai is set to continue for another year, and the final height will not be announced until the building opens in September 2009.

As you can see, the Google Earth image was taken while the building was still just a toddler, but you can get an idea of how it might look with a 3D model.

Before the Burj Dubai came along the process for deciding on the world’s tallest building was strangely complex – there’s actually 4 possible categories to consider – and there were separate records for supported masts.

Burj Dubai simplified the debate by taking the top spot in all possible categories, but it gives us an opportunity to revisit all the previous record holders, many of which have been updated since we previously looked at tall buildings and the world’s tallest towers.

Taipei 101 in Taiwan once held the “tallest building” record in 3 of the 4 possible categories with its architectural height of 508 m, highest occupied floor of 438 m and roof height of 448 m.

For the moment at least, Taipei 101 retains the title of largest completed building, but after the completion of Burj Dubai it will have to settle for being the location of the world’s fastest ascending elevator, which can get you up to the 101st floor at a gut-wrenching 37.7 mph!

Chicago’s Sears Tower was once the holder of all tall building records. Taipei 101 failed to conquer its record of “height with antenna”, at 529 m, but Burj Dubai has easily cleared that without the need of extra-reaching aerials.

Lastly, the rope-supported KVLY-TV mast in Blanchard, North Dakota, was officially the tallest man-made structure on the planet at a height of 629 m. The fact that Burj Dubai already tops this height without any external supports is testament to just how amazing an engineering feat it really is.

Further reading at the Wikipedia pages for Burj Dubai, Taipei 101, Sears tower and KVLY-TV mast.

Locations: Illinois, North Dakota, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates / Categories: Buildings, Towers

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Yes you lucky people, prepare yourselves for… The World’s Largest Cow!

This is actually Salem Sue of New Salem, North Dakota, who is 38 feet high, 50 feet long, and was constructed from six tons of reinforced fiberglass back in ‘74 for the primary purpose of, um, bigging up the local dairy farmers I guess.

Over in the UK we have our own famous Concrete Cows sculpture, which were created four years after Salem Sue by Canadian-born artist Liz Leyh, but are only about half life size.

More about Salem Sue at Roadside America and more about Concrete Cows at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Simon Cope and Jason Smith.

Locations: England, North Dakota / Categories: Large Type, Monuments

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The lorry in question is owned by Jim Palmer Trucking, and was blown over by winds in excess of 180kph.

If, for some weird reason, you enjoy seeing traffic accidents from above, you’ll love our previous post 9 (Possible) Traffic Accidents.

Thanks: a67
Updated: With thanks to Gary Powell and others in comments.

Locations: North Dakota / Categories: Other Vehicles

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This first house in Bismark was once part of a residential area, but as the nearby St. Alexius Medical Centre expanded they needed more and more parking space and bought up the land of all the adjacent houses. With the exception of one.

The house and its garden space are now directly opposite the emergency room so the owner must be either deaf or he really likes the sound of ambulance sirens.

Our second homeowner in San Jose refused to sell up to the developers of the nearby HP Pavilion indoor arena so is now completely surrounded by parking. I wonder if he gets free tickets on gamedays?

Previously on Google Sightseeing: The Man Who Lives in the Middle of the M62.

Thanks Boing boing and its readers.

Locations: California, North Dakota /

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Originally laid in the 70s for Trollwood Performing Arts School’s Wizard of OZ performance the real yellow bricks have since been replaced with concrete. The road still doesn’t go anywhere though, just around in circles to spell out “OZ” when viewed from above.

Trollwood homepage and Minuscule ground level photo

Thanks: Jeremy & Derek

Locations: North Dakota / Categories: Large Type

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Arboreal sign-writers agree that uppercase lettering is a no-brainer, as legibility is obviously impaired due to the decrease in the letter size… Here in Bismarck, North Dakota, the typographer has decided on a Grotesque sans serif face, not dissimilar to URW Grotesk Extra Light Condensed, and has chosen to set it at 261,354 point (approx.)

Over in Indiana, the Studebaker typographer has chosen a heavier typeface with tighter tracking, but a smaller size at only 216,850 point. Again the chosen face is a Grotesque sans serif, very similar (though not identical) to Franklin Gothic Heavy. What’s most interesting is the way trees have grown since their initial planting in 1937, creating some really nicely distressed letterforms.

There’s about 5,000 pine trees in the Studebaker sign, so just imagine how many make up the 2,592,000 point Luecke sign…

Thanks to Tim, Jason Signalness, Ryan J, Mark Donnell & aard.

Locations: Indiana, North Dakota / Categories: Large Type

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