Tuesday / March 14, 2017 / 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Restoring Keck’s House of Tomorrow – America’s First Glass House
AIA Chicago, 35 East Wacker Drive, #250
When Chicago architect George Fred Keck (1895-1980) designed the House of Tomorrow for the 1933 A Century of Progress World’s Fair, he embraced the challenge of creating a model for a new way of living. He designed America’s first glass house, predating both Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s renowned Farnsworth House (1945-51) and Philip Johnson’s Glass House (1949) by many years. Though little else remains from the 1933 fair, the House of Tomorrow still exists, vacant and deteriorated atop a dune overlooking Lake Michigan in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Indiana Landmarks aims to restore the influential structure with assistance from the National Trust for Historic Preservation which recently named the house a National Treasure. Todd Zeiger of Indiana Landmarks and Jennifer Sandy from the Chicago office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will talk about the origin of Keck’s groundbreaking glass curtain-wall design and how the building ended up in Indiana after the fair. They will also discuss the planned $2 million restoration of the House of Tomorrow which Indiana Landmarks has leased from the National Park Service.
The presentation will begin at 5:45pm.
Photo credits:
Postcard: Collection of Steven R. Shook
Contemporary image by Lee Lewellen
