Silo Home

I like strange houses and the Silo Home is certainly that.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s when the Cold War was escalating, the US government built hundreds of Atlas-F missile silos (each for 18 million in 1961, with the rising cost of construction today one could barely fund the excavation.) to prepare the country for an attack that never came. Today, most of these silos lie abandoned and filled with water, monuments to a bygone era of American history and left to waste. But now, thanks to two entrepreneurial cousins, Bruce Francisco and Gregory Gibbons, one of these silos located in beautiful Adirondack State Park near Lake Placid is finding new life as a luxury home safe haven getaway complex assessable by plane or car.

On the surface it features a hangar and spacious open living room with a fireplace and a wrap around porch. Below ground in what was once the launch control centre, now is a two level, three bedroom, 2½ bath with an open living area and kitchen adjoined by a spiral staircase. Star Wars like doors open to a large tunnel that accesses the silo.

How can you not like a house that comes complete with massive blast doors? Mmm… blast doors…

The silohome is a surface mountain home with an underground 1,850 m² vault one can habitat in with luxury. Francisco and Gibbons have restored the 200 m² two level launch control centre. Their complex is climate controlled using the earth temperature to moderate the surface and below ground environments. The same principals can be built into the large and expansive additional 1,850 m² silo area.