River Forest Lookout, a shipping-container treetop tower in Georgia, goes on sale

River Forest Lookout began as Mark Derenthal's idea of the perfect getaway in nature, and he designed and built much of it himself in 2023, working with the structural engineer Bill Seeber. The trick is in the parts: two modified shipping containers sit 60ft up on a steel stair tower adapted from a tower crane mast, all anchored to a concrete plinth on the forest floor.

Inside, it's a tight 300 sq ft: a kitchen, living and sleeping area with a small balcony, plus a full bathroom. The pay-off is the 360-degree view across the Chattahoochee National Forest to the Cohutta Mountains, which Wallpaper*'s Jonathan Bell reckons gets especially photogenic in autumn. A spiral stair between the containers leads to a roof terrace with a firepit, set among solar panels that, with propane heaters, keep the whole thing off-grid. A hoist hauls up supplies.

The 14-acre site has around 3,000ft of frontage on the Jacks River, with trout fishing, waterfalls and swimming holes. It's being sold fully furnished through Mountain Sotheby's International Realty for $1,200,000, with permission and utilities in place for a second structure.

Worth a look for anyone drawn to High-Tech thinking carried into the woods, or simply dreaming of a very tall cabin.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 3 November 2026. Read the original

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