6 ms·

World's Littlest Skyscraper

131 points by benbreen 6y ago

xwdv 6y ago
A millionaire’s wife bought it once to save it from being demolished.
- geoduck14 6y ago
  Honey, look what I bought! It was 75% off!
  - alasdair_ 6y ago
    Should have been 90% off, given the number of floors.
    - lostlogin 6y ago
      Ah, but the land is a fixed cost. Although I see it was built on land without discussion with the landowner.
paulhart 6y ago
Spinal Tap called...
- Maursault 6y ago
  > Spinal Tap called... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071cXxCNj5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071cXxCNj5A David St. Hubbins: "I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. That tended to understate the hugeness of the object."
djoldman 6y ago
> The key to McMahon's swindle, and his successful defense in the ensuing lawsuit was that legal documents listed the height as 480" as opposed to 480'. Investors didn't seem to notice, and McMahon never verbally stated that the actual height of the building would be 480 feet (150 m).[2][15][16] The proposed skyscraper depicted in the blueprints that he distributed (and which were approved by the investors) was clearly labeled as consisting of four floors and 480 inches (12 m)
- jamesgreenleaf 6y ago
  That's one expensive apostrophe. I wonder if similar scams via smart-contracts exist yet.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - roywiggins 6y ago
    Yes. https://obelisk.medium.com/meerkat-finance-and-the-0-that-was-worth-31m-769d9321d245 https://obelisk.medium.com/meerkat-finance-and-the-0-that-wa...
    - jamesgreenleaf 6y ago
      Wow. It seems like the saga is on-going. https://cointelegraph.com/news/dev-says-31-million-meerkat-finance-exploit-was-a-test-will-return-funds https://cointelegraph.com/news/dev-says-31-million-meerkat-f...
- Judgmentality 6y ago
  I feel like mistaking " for ' is understandable, but how do you not notice 4 floors when you're expecting 40?
  - simonebrunozzi 6y ago
    Too late, investors already gave him money by then.
    - Judgmentality 6y ago
      I'm not sure when they gave him the money, but it specifically mentions the investors approved the blueprints with only 4 floors. I understand people can be lazy and make mistakes, but that's pretty egregious.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ben_w 6y ago
I wonder if “Tom Scott did a video on this” is the new “Simpsons already did it”? https://youtu.be/xGQgmmrXONk https://youtu.be/xGQgmmrXONk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Already_Did_It https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Already_Did_It
- allturtles 6y ago
  Most interestingly, the upshot of his video is he could find no primary source validating the popular "swindle" story about the building.
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26453922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26453922 .
orf 6y ago
I wonder what became of McMahon, and what he would think about this discussion.
metrix 6y ago
I live in Amarillo and never knew about this building. Will have to visit the next time I head that way.
ALittleLight 6y ago
"The Newby–McMahon Building has survived tornadoes, a fire, and decades of neglect.[29] The building is currently part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls" For something built as a scam it's held up reasonably well. McMahon may have cheated his investors, but he seems to have built a real building.
chadlavi 6y ago
In my wife's hometown, I've been to this!
ignoranceprior 6y ago
Short guys should try this on Tinder. "How tall are you?" "6 5". Then when they meet up, explain that you meant 65 inches and not 6 feet 5 inches.
- eCa 6y ago
  For those, like me, who are not imperial-fluent: 65 inches is 165cm 6 foot 5 inches is 195cm So interestingly, the difference is a foot.
- ben_w 6y ago
  You say that, but this happened: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/18/6cm-tall-man-offered-covid-vaccine-after-nhs-blunder-liam-thorp https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/18/6cm-tall-man...
pentae 6y ago
Heh, most shophouses and plenty of standalone structures in SE Asia are 3 or 4 level structures built like this. Of course most are bigger, though I'm positive you'd find something thats smaller than this even just in Bangkok
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
barbegal 6y ago
There are no reliable sources that this was a scam or indeed any sources mentioning the building from the time. If this building gained investment on the basis of it being a 480 ft tall building then both the investors are complete idiots and the scam would have been judged as fraud. The investors can't have done any due diligence at all. Why would there be any value to building at that scale at that location. Building a 480 inch building whilst taking investment to build a 480 ft tower would clearly be shown as fraudulent. I suspect this building has a more mundane explanation: a builder trying out some new techniques or a client that wanted a larger building but ran out of funding.
Waterluvian 6y ago
How did that cost $3M to build?

131 points by benbreen 6y ago

xwdv 6y ago

A millionaire’s wife bought it once to save it from being demolished.

geoduck14 6y ago
Honey, look what I bought! It was 75% off!
- alasdair_ 6y ago
  Should have been 90% off, given the number of floors.
  - lostlogin 6y ago
    Ah, but the land is a fixed cost. Although I see it was built on land without discussion with the landowner.

paulhart 6y ago

Spinal Tap called...

Maursault 6y ago
> Spinal Tap called... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071cXxCNj5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071cXxCNj5A David St. Hubbins: "I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. That tended to understate the hugeness of the object."

djoldman 6y ago

> The key to McMahon's swindle, and his successful defense in the ensuing lawsuit was that legal documents listed the height as 480" as opposed to 480'. Investors didn't seem to notice, and McMahon never verbally stated that the actual height of the building would be 480 feet (150 m).[2][15][16] The proposed skyscraper depicted in the blueprints that he distributed (and which were approved by the investors) was clearly labeled as consisting of four floors and 480 inches (12 m)

jamesgreenleaf 6y ago
That's one expensive apostrophe. I wonder if similar scams via smart-contracts exist yet.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- roywiggins 6y ago
  Yes. https://obelisk.medium.com/meerkat-finance-and-the-0-that-was-worth-31m-769d9321d245 https://obelisk.medium.com/meerkat-finance-and-the-0-that-wa...
  - jamesgreenleaf 6y ago
    Wow. It seems like the saga is on-going. https://cointelegraph.com/news/dev-says-31-million-meerkat-finance-exploit-was-a-test-will-return-funds https://cointelegraph.com/news/dev-says-31-million-meerkat-f...
Judgmentality 6y ago
I feel like mistaking " for ' is understandable, but how do you not notice 4 floors when you're expecting 40?
- simonebrunozzi 6y ago
  Too late, investors already gave him money by then.
  - Judgmentality 6y ago
    I'm not sure when they gave him the money, but it specifically mentions the investors approved the blueprints with only 4 floors. I understand people can be lazy and make mistakes, but that's pretty egregious.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

ben_w 6y ago

I wonder if “Tom Scott did a video on this” is the new “Simpsons already did it”? https://youtu.be/xGQgmmrXONk https://youtu.be/xGQgmmrXONk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Already_Did_It https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Already_Did_It

allturtles 6y ago
Most interestingly, the upshot of his video is he could find no primary source validating the popular "swindle" story about the building.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26453922 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26453922 .

orf 6y ago

I wonder what became of McMahon, and what he would think about this discussion.

metrix 6y ago

I live in Amarillo and never knew about this building. Will have to visit the next time I head that way.

ALittleLight 6y ago

"The Newby–McMahon Building has survived tornadoes, a fire, and decades of neglect.[29] The building is currently part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls" For something built as a scam it's held up reasonably well. McMahon may have cheated his investors, but he seems to have built a real building.

chadlavi 6y ago

In my wife's hometown, I've been to this!

ignoranceprior 6y ago

Short guys should try this on Tinder. "How tall are you?" "6 5". Then when they meet up, explain that you meant 65 inches and not 6 feet 5 inches.

eCa 6y ago
For those, like me, who are not imperial-fluent: 65 inches is 165cm 6 foot 5 inches is 195cm So interestingly, the difference is a foot.
ben_w 6y ago
You say that, but this happened: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/18/6cm-tall-man-offered-covid-vaccine-after-nhs-blunder-liam-thorp https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/18/6cm-tall-man...

pentae 6y ago

Heh, most shophouses and plenty of standalone structures in SE Asia are 3 or 4 level structures built like this. Of course most are bigger, though I'm positive you'd find something thats smaller than this even just in Bangkok

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

barbegal 6y ago

There are no reliable sources that this was a scam or indeed any sources mentioning the building from the time. If this building gained investment on the basis of it being a 480 ft tall building then both the investors are complete idiots and the scam would have been judged as fraud. The investors can't have done any due diligence at all. Why would there be any value to building at that scale at that location. Building a 480 inch building whilst taking investment to build a 480 ft tower would clearly be shown as fraudulent. I suspect this building has a more mundane explanation: a builder trying out some new techniques or a client that wanted a larger building but ran out of funding.

Waterluvian 6y ago

How did that cost $3M to build?