A man's castle, under code enforcement siege

A man's castle, under code enforcement siege
Alan Kimble Fahey's 20,000-square-foot labyrinth of buildings, called Phonehenge West, in Acton is a 30-year labor of love. But county code enforcement officials want him to tear it down, so he's going to trial.





Bargain land and wide-open spaces drew Alan Kimble Fahey to Acton. A modest ranch house on a desert lot offered the outpost he sought.

But then Fahey wanted to expand. So he began to build.

Fahey built a barn and moved in. He traded his motorcycle for a trailer and painted it to look like a rail car. He bartered other possessions for a dump-truck load of rocks and a 60-foot workers' lift. Then he sank 108 utility poles a dozen feet into the hard-packed Antelope Valley ground. Reinforced steel beams came next. A giant tower began creeping skyward. A wing sprouted off the tower. Then another.

Almost three decades later, Fahey, 59, a retired phone service technician, was still working on what is now a sprawling, 20,000-square-foot labyrinth of interconnected buildings he calls "Phonehenge West," stopping only when he was forced to. (The site is not to be confused with Phonehenge, a configuration at a theme park near Myrtle Beach, S.C., featuring England's famed red telephone booths.)


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-phonehenge-west-20110526,0,797986.story

(which is a particular peeve of this desert dweller).

Maybe it could somehow be brought up to fire code (Facebook peeps, what a great volunteer idea...) and arrangements can be made.I understand about setting a precedent, but it's rather a nice example of architecture blending into the natural surroundings, IMHO.

... a threat to all owners of artless souless MacMansions with perfectly manicured lawns.

McMansion eyesore.

If a structural engineer says it's in no imminent danger of collapsing barring tornado, mudslide or earthquake, it should be labeled folk art and taken off the zoning board's table.

I love stuff like this.

"The code" is a book of construction standards written by the guys who invent shit to make houses "safer" such as the Simpson Strong Tie corp. That book is a copyrighted work, you can't see it unless you buy it, or if the building officials let you see theirs. Most builders are unfamiliar with the code, except to the extent that lumberyards and building officials tell them what's required.

But it's the law, because elected officials adopt it "by reference".

So the laws are written by the guys who sell you the ridiculously overpriced tin brackets that the law requires. Fahey is my hero.

and just in case no one else realizes it, it's on his land, he lives in it, and he's not even close to another home so none of that bullshit fire codes should apply.

remember the first building code? If a man builds a house for another man and that house falls down

the builder will be hanged.

It seems Mr. Fahey is livin the American dream.......................................LARGELY.

I agree...let him be.