picture from nytimes.com

The Flaming Lips frontman, Wayne Coyne, had a house/music studio built for him in the midst of the crack-addled neighborhood he grew up in.  Actually, he bought a several buildings he calls “The Compound”.  Trying to help revitalize the neighborhood in a bizarre gentrification scheme (I suspect his goal is to change each crack-house into an acid-house one by one).

picture from fitzsimmons architects

Living here, he says, gives him freedom. “You can do what you want — when we rehearse, nobody ever complains about the noise.”

- from nytimes.com

picture from fitzsimmons architects

…the living situation has been difficult at times, especially with the area’s high crime rate. “If we hadn’t been able to expand” and create a buffer zone, Mr. Coyne said, “we’d have been in trouble.” Seven years ago, they purchased the home that belonged to their next-door neighbors and demolished it; the three other houses and two other lots have since expanded their property to about two acres.

- from nytimes.com

from fitzsimmons-arch.com

Personally, my favorite part of this whole house is the bathroom, which looks like something from a David Lynch movie.

picture from fitzsimmons-arch.com

Yeah, if I won the lottery and got millions of dollars I could see myself buying a bunch of buildings in St. Louis and making something like this in South City.  Or maybe just buy a tall building in Downtown West and put a weird cafe at the bottom of it.  Well, I guess money can’t buy you happiness, but it can add a lot of variety to your life, like missing a dinner date because you got lost in your own shower.