Over one hundred specialty parts that will allow a house to rotate are being put into place on Mt. Helix in San Diego as retirees Al and Janet Johnstone build their 'Rotating Home.' The ongoing construction of the very modern, two-story, 8,500 square foot home can be viewed on their web site.
The building lot, which has a total area of a little over half an acre, is a three-tiered lot. The home has a partial basement, round in design, with about 500 square feet of space. The garage on the first floor has two turn tables that rotate the cars 180 degrees after the car has been parked so that the drivers never have to back out of the garage.
The first floor, a fifty-two foot diameter circle, has over 2,000 square feet of living space that includes the main entry, a recreation room with a movable wall so that it can be any size, the garage and a full bath.
The main living area on the second floor is an eighty-foot circle, which has approximately 5,000 square feet. The layout includes a great room (living & dining), family room, kitchen, three bedrooms, office/bedroom, three bathrooms, laundry, pantry, elevator equipment room and a deck all around the outside of the circle.
A non-rotating deck of 1,000 square feet serves as the fire egress and the exterior of the home is all glass including the deck railing. The 360-degree views will be provided by a three horsepower motor and the home cannot spin 'out of control' due to the weight of the home.
Al designed the home and acts as the architect, engineer, contractor and grunt. Janet is performing the bookkeeping, decorating and acting as gofer. The couple hired a draftsman to draw up the plans and submitted the complete package to San Diego County building department and received the building permit. Structural, soil, mechanical, and title 24 (glazing) engineers have been hired to sign off on the work.
The Johnstones, who will be marketing their design to others who want to build rotating houses, remind us that rotating buildings are not new. They cite rotating restaurants and bars, such as Seattle's famous Space Needle.
They state that a home can be as small as a one -story 2,000 square foot vacation home or as large as a 15,000 or more square foot multi-story main residence. Their home consultation package prices range from $175,000 to $225,000, depending on the amount of consultation needed, and are in addition to the cost of building a conventional home. On very large homes, the cost could be equal to a conventional home and on smaller homes the cost could be double or more that of a conventional home with the same square footage.
Pat Rioux
