Up, Up, and Away: Treehouses Take Off

Everyone’s childhood dream of living in a treehouse can now be a reality – thanks to Pete Nelson, a.k.a "The Treehouse Guy." The writer-photographer-architect has taken Swiss Family Robinson to the next level; his elaborately designed homes are suspended high in the trees and have been bringing adults everywhere back to the days of scraped knees and climbing trees.

Most of his treehouses are in Washington state near the Seattle headquarters of Treehouse Workshop. But his designs seem to have inspired a frenzy of hidden tree fortresses across the globe, from a suspended eyeball-like sphere in British Columbia to a solar-powered two-story hut in the Costa Rican jungle.

Nelson says that treehouses let kids and adults reconnect with nature, and allow families to enjoy time together. At his Northwest Treehouse School in Fall City, Washington, people can venture up into the trees, and also get firsthand experience building one of these structures.

Those that cringe at the thought of dangling hundreds of feet high can instead check out Nelson's book, New Treehouses of the World, which deftly illustrates his ability to bridge nature and fantasy into some of the world's most marvelous playhouses.

--Allison McCann