All around the world you can find many apartment and property owners that are quick to agree to the proposals of contractors and local authorities who want them to move so that they can build huge highways, skyscrapers or luxury villas. In most cases, these problems are solved quickly and efficiently, but there are also exceptions where stubborn apartment owners simply refuse to leave.
This is how "nail houses" emerged - buildings that are "stuck" in the middle of construction sites, luxury neighborhoods or other giant structures. This phenomenon is so strange and comic that it would be hard to believe it exists had the following funny pictures not been taken...
1. All apartment owners surrounding Mary Cook's building sold their properties so that huge multi-story buildings could be erected on the street. As you can see in the picture, today it's a sandwich house.
3. In Toronto, Canada, there are many attached homes with two different owners. This is what happens when only one of them sells his property...
4. In the city of Guangzhou, China, the local authorities had to build an interchange around a small apartment complex, only because three families refused to sell their homes. Today they probably regret the decision….
5. People traveling on the Allmendstrasse interchange in Switzerland have a rare opportunity to see the home of one of the most stubborn people in the country.
6. The new buildings in New York give a "warm hug" to the old building style
7. Randal Acker wasn’t willing to sell his home in Portland, USA even after all the other residents of the area agreed to vacate it for a new city university, but he can take comfort knowing he lives in a very educated residential area.
8. Edith Macefield refused to sell her house even after real estate developers offered her more than $1 million. Her story was published all over the United States and is said to have inspired Pixar's animated film "Up".
9. This Gothic building in New York is the remnant of a building style that is no longer common in the city, and you can see it hiding between its two "big brothers" in the Upper West Side.
10. This crumbling building has become a symbol of the struggle against local authorities, who have decided to build a highway around the house of a particularly stubborn landlord.
11. The Chinese city of Suzhou is one of the most successful cities in the country, but this is what happened when not all of its residents agreed to leave so that new villas could be built for the upper classes who wanted to live there.
12. In Nanning, China, a stubborn resident decided not to sell his house, since he did not believe he was getting a fair compensation. The result: a very creative traffic island.
