They were celebrating the new Cresta Bella project, eight single-family, Victorian-style homes on the bluff overlooking the downtown skyline. The developers are brothers Chris and Andrew Wilson, of the Wilson Development Group, who debuted on the local home-building scene with the Belleview Plaza condos near the Country Club Plaza in 2003. Their promotional materials boast that Cresta Bella is "luxuriously appointed with a multitude of state-of-the art features," including optional backyard pools, rooftop spas and outdoor kitchens. Starting price: $1.2 million.
Hey, the Strip can dream about living someplace like that just as much as the next guy. But that night, it ended up raising a glass to a local landmark that will be torn down to make way for those schmancy digs: the upside-down-L-shaped house.
For 20 years, the structure has turned heads on I-35 and packed 'em in for after-hours parties. But now, the elevated slab's days are numbered.
The Strip gets mighty cranky writing eulogies for longtime local points of interest, but because it recently noted the passing of Ray's Video ("Requiem for Ray's," September 28), this nostalgic niblet figured it had better speak a few words on the L-shaped house, too — and give readers a chance to appreciate the thing before it's gone.
The Strip tracked down Jim Tharp, the original owner of the unconventional abode. Tharp told this meat patty that in the early '80s, he was between business ventures and decided to put his idle hands to work building his own home in the eclectic hilltop neighborhood. He wanted a room with a view that wouldn't be obstructed if the church next door added a second level, so he knew that he had to build tall. He also knew that he wanted something he'd never seen before.
A cube struck him as "too commercial." He also tinkered with the idea of a structure that looked like a capital letter T.
"But that's the first letter of my last name, which was too predictable," Tharp says. "It just didn't turn me on."
When the perennial businessman (he now hawks high-end countertops) finally settled on the design featuring an elongated living space jutting out from a narrow base, he kept his avant-garde idea under wraps. He also kept the towering structure within the municipal building code's height limits so that he wouldn't need special approval for the architectural oddity.
"I knew anything that required a public hearing might blow up in my face," he says.
There was plenty of fanfare as the house went up, Tharp recalls. One local newscaster compared the structure with a high-rise bowling alley. It looks precarious, Tharp admits, but it isn't that far-out when it comes to structural safety. "The only thing that was interesting was, my engineer and I could never agree what would happen if a plane went through one of the little stilts," he says of the skinny beams that prop up the living space.
Over the 18 years Tharp lived there, the highway head-turner created plenty of unique encounters. During the 1985 World Series, he says, the Goodyear blimp stopped 100 feet from his window on every pass, and he'd wave to each load of VIPs. A decade later, he says, he got a nod from the leader of the free world as a caravan carried Bill Clinton from a Kansas City speaking engagement to the airport via I-35.
Showing 1-4 of 4
Just a footnote to the story: My uncle Jim Tharp passed away last week on January 3, 2010. He outlived the 'L' house but even at his memorial service, the house was a topic of conversation. Turns out the minister that officiated had ties to Jim's underground house next door to the 'L' ... he may not have known Jim but he knew of his work. We'll miss Jim and all those unique (if not architecturally significant) buildings that he had yet to create.
Just a footnote to the story: My uncle Jim Tharp passed away last week on January 3, 2010. He outlived the 'L' house but even at his memorial service, the house was a topic of conversation. Turns out the minister that officiated had ties to Jim's underground house next door to the 'L' ... he may not have known Jim but he knew of his work. We'll miss Jim and all those unique (if not architecturally significant) buildings that he had yet to create.
Funny to run across this article. Tharp's an interesting chap for sure - interesting, that's a good word for it. I worked for him, or should I say got worked like a dog by him, back when he was running a small formula engine shop in Platte City in the 80s. It was a great looking house and a typical Tharp solution to a problem.
Funny to run across this article. Tharp's an interesting chap for sure - interesting, that's a good word for it. I worked for him, or should I say got worked like a dog by him, back when he was running a small formula engine shop in Platte City in the 80s. It was a great looking house and a typical Tharp solution to a problem.
like
dislike
