Charlie Hilton House

First the puzzle du jour: Sam's Barber Shop.

Joan and I have been visiting this building site for probably 8 years now, a huge 9000 square foot, hurricane proof, gorgeous concrete house near Alys Beach. The owner, Charlie Hilton has an asphalt business and a Holiday Inn in Panama City, and has hired Arthur Dyson the dean of architecture at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture to do the design.

It's been frustrating seeing this place being built because it's always behind fences and progress has been extremely slow. Apparently, it will be completed this summer. Joan and I would really like to be invited to the opening, so if you have contacts...

The building below is just the guest house, which would suit us just fine. It's overlooking the beach and has a gorgeous view of sunrises and sunsets. When we first saw it rising, we thought it would be a multiple car garage. Instead, it seems to be a two or three story guest house.

This is a North-East side view of the property. The guest house is that little round building on the left [east].

The next picture is a close-up [over the concrete fence] of some roof details [still north side as seen from the east].

Same silos, this time looking southward, towards the Gulf.

This is a very wide-angle shot made of the Gulf side of the property, looking from the West corner of the property [just beyond the concrete fence, don't ask]. This is the first time I've actually seen this side of the property; seeing it from the beach is not really an option.

As far as I remember, the building expenses ran well over the $50 million range about three or four years ago, and it's not for sale. But I'm sure that everything has a price, so please feel free to donate any large sums should you wish to see us very happy for the month of March in future years.

It's really too cold to stay here in January or February...