It didn't take a team of National Geographic engineering nerds for a lawyer in Portland, Ore., to create his version of the real-life house from Pixar flick Up. Nope, Randal Acker did what all those years at law school taught him how to do best: tie balloons to stuff. After winning the battle to keep the 1894 Queen Anne Victorian where he holds offices intact—despite the ever expanding reaches of Portland State University—Acker celebrated by anchoring 400 balloons to the house. Actually, it was a much more complicated process than that:
"Earlier this week, Tom Mitchell, the project supervisor for Walsh Construction, threaded a nylon rope down the chimney and anchored it in the basement. The balloon team knotted the balloons to the rope, and Mitchell went back into the basement and pulled the rope until the balloons were flying over the house, a riot of color against the gray sky and the gray concrete of the new building.
The cooperation, however, came after years of acrimony."
In other words, the guy that would have been the one to demolish "Figo House" (named after Acker's dog who's "named for the Portuguese soccer star Luis Figo"), had Acker not won the right to preserve it, eventually made nice with a bunch of balloons. What is this, a child's birthday party? The more obvious and much more "adult" way of making everyone get along: helium hits!
· In downtown Portland, lawyer re-creates 'Up' with lots of balloons [Oregon Live via reddit via Flavorwire]
· National Geographic Builds Amazing Real-Life House From Up [Curbed National]