Aluminaire House
{{Short description|Building preserved in Palm Springs, United States}}
{{Infobox building
| name = Aluminaire House
| image = Aluminaire House.png
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| image_caption = Aluminaire House in Palm Springs, California, June 2025
| status = Preserved
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| architectural_style = International
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| location = Palm Springs, California, U.S.
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| completion_date = 1931
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| floor_count = 3
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| architect = {{ubl|A. Lawrence Kocher|Albert Frey}}
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The Aluminaire House is a three-story house designed as a case study by architects A. Lawrence Kocher and Albert Frey in April 1931. Made of donated materials and built in ten days, it was the first all-metal house in the United States. After being displayed at architecture shows, it was installed at multiple locations in New York, and was later transferred to the Palm Springs Art Museum, where it is currently on view as an exhibit.
History
The Aluminaire House was shown in the Grand Central Palace exhibition hall on Lexington Avenue in New York City as part of the Architectural and Allied Arts Exhibition. In 1932, the house was exhibited again, this time at the Architectural League of New York show sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). The MOMA show was titled The International Style - Architecture Since 1922, which became the basis of a book by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock, The International Style, a manifesto for the International Style of architecture.{{cite web|last=Sumer|first=Rose|title=Modern Artifact: The Story of Aluminaire House|url=http://www.nyit.edu/magazine/modern_artifact/|publisher=New York Institute of Technology|accessdate=26 June 2013}}
After the early exhibitions, the house was sold to architect Wallace K. Harrison for $1,000 ({{Inflation|US|1000|1932|fmt=eq}}), who disassembled it and moved it to his Long Island estate, where it became the core of an extensive complex. By 1940, the so-called "Tin House" was once again disassembled and moved to another portion of the property, where it became a guest house.{{cite news|last=Saslow|first=Linda|title=Metal House Becomes Case Study|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/10/nyregion/metal-house-becomes-case-study.html|newspaper=New York Times|date=July 10, 1988}}{{cite news|last=Fortunato|first=Claudia S.|title=The Aluminaire House|url=http://halfhollowhills.patch.com/articles/the-aluminaire-house|accessdate=26 November 2011|newspaper=Half Hollow Hills Patch|date=April 19, 2011}}
The property was subdivided by new buyers in the 1980s who planned to demolish the Aluminaire House. An attempt to designate the house as a landmark{{cite news|last=Goldberger|first=Paul|title=Icon of Modern Architecture Poised for Extinction|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/08/arts/architecture-view-icon-of-modernism-poised-for-extinction.html|accessdate=26 June 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=March 8, 1987}} failed, but the owners agreed to donate the house to the New York Institute of Technology, which reassembled the house on the school's Central Islip campus.{{cite news|last=Gutis|first=Philip S.|title=It's Ugly, and So is the Fight to Save It|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/07/nyregion/it-s-ugly-and-so-is-the-fight-to-save-it.html|accessdate=26 November 2011|newspaper=New York Times|date=February 7, 1987}} After the Central Islip campus was closed, the house was transferred to the Aluminaire House Foundation, disassembled, and put into storage. A 2013 proposal to reassemble the house on a site in Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, as part of a housing development, met with opposition from Sunnyside Gardens residents, who expressed concern that the house's design did not fit with the neighborhood's traditional brick housing.{{cite news|last=Trapasso|first=Claire|title=Sunnyside Gardens residents oppose relocation of futuristic 'Aluminaire House' to their landmarked brick district|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/sunnyside-gardens-residents-show-steel-opposition-relocation-plans-aluminaire-house-article-1.1378346|newspaper=New York Daily News|date=June 20, 2013}} In 2015, it was announced that the Aluminaire House would be moved to Palm Springs, California, home of other works by Frey.{{cite news |last=Descant |first=Skip |title=Aluminaire House coming to Palm Springs |url=http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2015/02/16/aluminaire-house-coming-palm-springs/23525107/ |newspaper=The Desert Sun |date=February 17, 2015}} In early 2018, the house was placed in a container and shipped to Palm Springs. Initial plans called for it to be rebuilt in a park opposite the Palm Springs Art Museum, pending a $475,000 fund raising effort for its restoration.{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-aluminaire-house-20180213-htmlstory.html |title=Albert Frey's 1931 Aluminaire House waits for a permanent home in Palm Springs |first=Scarlet |last=Cheng |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=February 13, 2018}} Assembly of the house at the museum was planned for 2021, but actually began in July of 2023, on a parking lot just south of the museum and with a budget of $2.6 million.{{cite web |title=Aluminaire House Finds Permanent Home at Palm Springs Art Museum |url=https://www.aluminaire.org/aluminaire-house-finds-permanent-home-at-palm-springs-art-museum/#more-917 |website=aluminaire.org |access-date=4 May 2021}}{{Cite news |last=Finkel |first=Jori |date=2024-01-25 |title=A Beacon of Modern Architecture Lands in the Desert |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/arts/design/aluminaire-house-palm-springs.html |access-date=2024-01-29 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Because of its desert location, the museum added air conditioning and weatherproofing. The grand opening was March 23, 2024.{{Cite web |last=OctoberCMS |title=Aluminaire House™ Grand Opening {{!}} Palm Springs Art Museum |url=https://www.psmuseum.org/events/aluminaire-opening |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=www.psmuseum.org |language=en}}
Description
The {{convert|1200|sqft|m2|adj=on}} house is roughly cubic in shape, resting on six columns, with five rooms. Exterior walls consist of corrugated metal sheathing backed by waterproof paper over a structure of two-inch steel angles. The interior finish is thin insulation board covered with fabric.{{cite book|title=Modern Movement Heritage|url=https://archive.org/details/modernmovementhe00cunn|url-access=limited|year=1998|publisher=E & FN SPON|isbn=0-419-23230-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/modernmovementhe00cunn/page/n152 137]–138|editor=Cunningham, Allen}}
See also
- Dymaxion House, a contemporary proposal by architect Buckminster Fuller for a mass-produced prefabricated house
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|http://www.aluminaire.org/}}
- [http://www.nyit.edu/magazine/modern_artifact/ Aluminaire House] at the New York Institute of Technology
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Category:Buildings and structures in Palm Springs, California
Category:Houses in Nassau County, New York
Category:Houses in Riverside County, California
Category:Modernist architecture in California