The Beer Can House in Houston, Texas has been in the works since 1968, it takes quite a bit of time for John, his wife and his neighbors to drink over 50,000 cans of beer. John Milkovisch had not imagined it at first doing his usual landscaping jobs covering up the grass with rocks, metal, and wood for original decorations. To create aluminum siding for the house John began to line the house with flattened beer cans which over the next 18 years covered up the house. The sidings began to evolve into a full house outfit covering the entire structure complete with aluminum curtains also made from the beer cans.
John’s favorite beer is ‘whatevers’ on special’ and although his wife thought he was a little crazy at first she adjusted to the new look of the house. Ripley’s tried counting it and gave up at around 50,000 so the official can count is ‘over 50,000’. John never intended for his house to become a work of art but his pastime and instinct to recycle naturally evolved into one. John wonders, ‘I don’t consider this art. It’s just a pastime. But sometimes I lie awake at night, trying to figure out why I do it.’ He gets a kick out of people doing a double driveby in shock and awe and believes that this was a calling. ‘Well I think it might have been the good Lord says ‘Nut, it’s time for you to build this crazy stuff, so here I did, I built it.’
After John and his wife passed away, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art acquired the house and have been planning a way to restore the establishment as Houston’s weather began to wear down the house. The creative decorative pieces of beer can curtains have become too rusty from oxidation and wil be replaced with vintage beer cans generously sorted by volunteers in the neighborhood.
-EvelynKim|Follow Me@evelynjkim
NEXT PAGE: CHECK OUT THE PROGRESSION OF THE BEER CAN HOUSE!
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