Comments on: Homemade Wooden Skyscraper

Homemade Wooden Skyscraper

jonson — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:22:29 -0800

The story of how Russian Nikolai Sutyagin began building his homemade wooden skyscraper, went to prison, lost most of his fortune & now lives with his wife in his unfinished masterpiece is a fascinating one. Many more photos of the structure can be found here. Via

By: luckypozzo

luckypozzo — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:43:50 -0800

Interesting. Wish the pictures were better. That is one proud shirtless man.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:55:26 -0800

Are all the photos from three blocks away, in the fog? I'd like to see some of the interior. I'm wishing for too much.

By: spunk

spunk — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:59:43 -0800

too long to load

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:33:25 -0800

Wow. Those fog-enshrouded photos make it look like something out of Zhivago.

By: posadnitsa

posadnitsa — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:04:36 -0800

Here are some more pictures, for the curious, although none of the interior (which I would also really, really like to see).

By: Joeforking

Joeforking — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 23:23:14 -0800

But Sutyagin was accused by one of his employees (who stole $30,000 from Sutyagin) of beating him up and imprisoning him in a shed. I think he got off very lightly.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 06:00:47 -0800

That thing is just crazy looking, like something out of an Edward Gorey illustration or a dark and spooky children's book. Witches live there! I'm not sure how willing I would be to climb up in it, and I tend to be pretty comfortable taking risks.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 06:10:59 -0800

What a story! This Russian article quotes him as saying:

"I myself don't know what possessed me to do all this. I wanted to build a house where I could entertain business partners from other cities. In our hotels you can't get any rest — the prostitutes have the run of the place. But then I got sucked in. The higher the house rose, the more beautiful the view was. It was annoying that in the city, whatever window you looked out of all you saw was the next building."

Thanks for the post!

By: M.C. Lo-Carb!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 07:06:05 -0800

niiice!

By: jonson

jonson — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 07:17:42 -0800

Man, languagehat, never have I been more jealous of your skills. I ran across a bunch of websites about this place, and not a single one was in English.

By: pinto

pinto — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 08:15:16 -0800

awesome. reminds me of the broken angel in bed-stuy (brooklyn).

By: jonson

jonson — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 09:20:47 -0800

Pinto - you're not alone. That "broken angel" building is actually referenced by one of the commenters at the bottom of the first link in my post.

By: sarcasman

sarcasman — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 10:16:41 -0800

Those images of a giant wooden wizard's tower emerging from the fog... like a lost calvino city... perfect for a rain haze high ass day as this one. Some men's ideas rise higher than others. And languagehat, excellent russian-fu.