Beer Can House renovated

I have to admit I have not yet visited the Beer Can House, though I heard of it when I was in college.

Pop a top, again
Beer Can House - restored to its original condition - is ready for a round of spectators

By JEANNIE KEVER
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Call John Milkovisch a man ahead of his time.

No one talked about recycling or reducing their carbon footprint back when Milkovisch started covering his house with beer cans in the 1960s. And folk art was something you might find in Appalachia or Latin America, not a working-class neighborhood near Memorial Park.

Today, Milkovisch's creation is celebrated as one of those quirky, only-in-Houston experiences unknown to many natives but a draw for tourists from all over the world. Its $202,000 renovation will be unveiled Friday at a party billed as the Beer Can Opener, and it reopens to the public next month.

But what, exactly, is the Beer Can House?

"It's so many different things to so many people,'' said Stephen Bridges, who works for the Orange Show Foundation for Visionary Art, which owns the Beer Can House and has overseen its renovation. "To some people, they instantly recognize it as a piece of folk art. To others, it's just a house covered in beer cans.''

And that's OK.

The Beer Can House is, after all, an homage to individual vision, although Milkovisch, who died in 1988, might have preferred to call it an homage to Texas Pride and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Or a way to avoid painting the house.

Decide for yourself. People will be able to see it up close when the house reopens March 8, one of the few remaining bungalows in a neighborhood now filled with expensive, three-story townhouses. Docents will be on hand between noon and 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, showcasing what more than 40,000 beer cans and other whimsical additions can do for a house. (The house will be open by appointment, as well, and available for rental to groups of 25 or fewer.)