Seven students sitting in a tree

On Friday, seven seniors unveiled their hidden hideout: a three-level treehouse buried deep in the woods behind the Comcast Center parking garage.

The "treehouse seven," as they like to call themselves - seniors Cooper Linde, Andrew Zhao, Taylor Jones, Matt Ritterpusch, Chris Ahn, Fred De Grano and one who declined to be named - opened their canopy campout to about 40 students who came out to celebrate the treehouse's completion. The group said they wanted to make the structure public so others could enjoy an alcohol-free escape, as they have for the past academic year. But with the impending threat of developing the Wooded Hillock area, the seniors say they hope the treehouse will remain undisturbed.

"It's all about a bunch of friends who like to get together and have a good time," Linde said. "There's nothing like this anywhere on campus."

The seven began constructing the treehouse in September and worked on it mostly at night, lighting the area with flashlights and headlamps and using material they either purchased or found while dumpster diving.

"Some people were suspicious when I would come back into the dorm real late at night covered in dirt and carrying tools," said Linde, who is a resident assistant in LaPlata Hall. "I always just told them I was building a treehouse."

The treehouse, which sits 12 feet above the ground, can be accessed by climbing a wooden ladder to the wall-less first story, where two steps lead up to the second-level "house" section.

"Building a house 10 to 20 feet off the ground is a huge accomplishment, especially when you may not have all the specialized tools," said senior engineering major Divyang Mago, a friend of the seven who constructed the treehouse.

Though they tried to be as discreet as possible - besides bringing their friends up to see their handiwork - the treehouse inevitably attracted curiousity during its construction. Zhao listed two machete-wielding men claiming they were land surveyors working for the university last semester and a woman who claimed to be geocaching as some of those who accidentally discovered the secret project. Mago said no one has defaced or harmed the treehouse, and they hope that respect will continue.

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