The late sculptor Robert Bruno built a steel house on a hillside above Lake Ransom Canyon, outside Lubbock, Texas, that itself is considered a piece of art.

The Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock is home to an impressive public art collection, which we’ve described in an earlier column. Even the football stadium where the Red Raiders bump heads on Saturdays is ornamented with a major piece of art.

One of the largest, most unusual pieces of campus art was designed by the late architecture professor Robert Bruno. Some say the steel sculpture, which now sits near the Architecture Building, looks like an elephant. But Bruno didn’t designate a name, so no one is quite sure what he had in mind. After its completion, the artist was known to eat lunch while sitting under the sculpture.

As he was welding the mysterious piece in the early 1970s, Bruno told friends he could live in a similar structure, which brings us to one of the highlights of our visit to Lubbock. Bruno designed and built an even more unusual off-campus creation. This art is not only something to look at but a place to live.

Bruno’s steel house overlooking Ransom Canyon is simply amazing. At first glace it appears to be a rusted spaceship sent to earth in search of life – perhaps by aliens who enjoyed the music of Lubbock native son Buddy Holly.

Regardless, it is quite an impressive structure, and a visit there turned out to be a highlight of our stay in Lubbock. The house remains unfinished, much as it was at the time of the artist’s death. Today it is owned by Bruno’s daughter, who lives out of state.

Bruno started construction of the steel house in 1974, on a hillside 15 miles east of Lubbock, above Lake Ransom Canyon. The task would consume his life.

Bruno had been considered an excellent painter and sculptor by the time he was 15. As a student at Dominican College in Wisconsin, he began working with steel before later earning a master’s degree from Notre Dame in 1969.

Bruno moved to Lubbock in 1971 when he assumed a faculty position in the College of Architecture. In the early 1970s, he designed and built the large steel sculpture that now inhabits an area called the Robert Bruno Plaza on campus.

But Bruno’s steel house was his tour de force. The artist performed most of the work, welding and fashioning the stained glass. He even built his own hydraulic crane for construction.

Bruno knew the weight of his house was 110 tons because he bought scraps of quarter-inch steel by the pound. He enjoyed the process of creating a major work of art and seemed in no hurry to finish.

Bruno worked on his steel house for 34 years. Though it remained unfinished, he moved in and was able to experience living in his unique creation for a few months before he died of cancer in 2008 at age 64.

The home is built on three levels, on a foundation of wide legs, one of which houses Bruno’s small office that eventually became his library. Entrance is via a second-floor gangplank.

The house is approximately 2,200 square feet, but as caretaker Henry Martinez told us, “Nothing in this house is square.” The second floor includes space for a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bath. The third floor has a large living area with a small balcony.

Even with unfinished plywood floors, exploration of the interior is a real treat. A visitor has no idea what to expect around the next corner or up the stairway.

Standing inside and looking around the living area caused each of us to wish we could sit and chat with Bruno about this amazing house. Of the many remarkable pieces of sculpture spread across the Texas Tech campus and this West Texas community, perhaps none is as iconic and surprising as his home.

David and Kay Scott are authors of “Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges” (Globe Pequot). Visit them at www.valdosta.edu/~dlscott/Scott