Shortly after the Cuban missile crisis, at the height of the paranoia of the Cold War, a wealthy businessman from Las Vegas made a crazy decision: from now on he would no longer live above ground, but underground. This would free him from the burdens of earthly life and, in passing, forestall a possible nuclear catastrophe. In a business district not far from the Las Vegas Strip, he had a seven-meter-deep pit dug, reinforced the walls with reinforced concrete and then sealed them again. And inside? A complete suburban house was built. Not just in case, but as a primary residence.
Girard Brown “Jerry” Henderson, as the man was called, had made his money in the cosmetics industry, but his real passion was living underground. “He was a pioneer of the movement,” says British photographer Alastair Philip Wiper, who managed to visit the house, which is closed to the public, as part of a project on the architectural interpretations of the word “nuclear.” “Henderson believed that people would be better off if they all lived underground.”
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