Phillip Paul Weidner was born in a rural town in Illinois, which he left after high school to study at MIT. He graduated in 1968 with degrees in Industrial Management and Electrical Engineering before going on to Harvard Law. Then, he worked as a trial lawyer in Alaska and started his own practice in 1976, where he still works. He is a lover of nature and hi describes himself as a “frustrated architect.”
The “Goose Creek Tower”, has been ongoing for the past 15 years, is a building constructed from self experience of Phillip Paul Weidner, a tower in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness without any plans or blueprints, basically only his imagination and the limit height possible, because “I started to build a 40' by 40' scribe log cabin, and I realized I could put pillars on top and put another house on top of a house. And we just kept going. We got to 185' and we stopped, because 200' is federal air space,” Weidner tells Great Big Story. The structure, at the basement level, has a hidden escape tunnel that leads to a safe room.
The tower, which for some people recall the Mole Antonelliana in Turin, is a building that dominates the landscape, but at the same time converses with its surroundings. The building conveys a sense of instability, it is formed by a series of individual houses stacked one above the other, piled into what appears to be an impossible structural feat, with small staircases and ladders inside leading from floor to floor.
The Goose Greek Tower is a work in progress, and offers a unique perspective on Alaska, with 360-degree views of (on a clear day) a great panoramic views, Weidner estimates one can see 300 miles from the top of the tower. He also wants to put in a ham radio station, and broadcast what he calls Radio Free Goose Creek.
While construction has been ongoing for the past 15 years, video network Great Big Story has recently completed a short documentary about the tower. titled 'We’re Not In Whoville Anymore: Welcome To Goose Creek Tower', the film offers a look inside the structure alongside a guided tour by Weidner himself. See the video below,
