Extending and Preserving the Modern American Dwelling

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Day Three Morning Sessions
Extending and Preserving the Modern American Dwelling

Session 1
A Conservation Management Plan for the Eames House

Session 2
Unloved and Out of Sight: The Post War Manufactured House

Session 3
Sustainable Rehabilitation of Homes Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

A Conservation Management Plan for the Eames House

The Eames House, an internationally renowned and highly influential work of Modern architecture, was designed by Ray and Charles Eames under Arts and Architecture magazine’s Case Study House program. It is now one of the most intact and internationally recognized of the Case Study homes. However, it is far more than a great work of architecture. It is filled with Charles and Ray’s belongings and sits in a distinctive landscape, and these three interconnected elements—the building complex, the collections, and the landscape—are all integral to its significance. As the house and its site have evolved over the years, the Eames Foundation, which owns and manages it, has found itself at a crossroads: How to conserve the site in ways that protect all aspects of its heritage significance, while also recognizing the need for reasonable change? To assist in the sensitive management and conservation of the site, the Getty Conservation Institute developed the Eames House Conservation Management Plan (CMP), which takes a holistic approach by analyzing the entire site and all of its elements and components, both tangible and intangible. This presentation will take participants through the conservation planning process and will explain the components of the Eames House CMP. It will demonstrate that this CMP provides a model for the application of this methodology to other modern sites.


Unloved and Out of Sight: The Post War Manufactured House

Today, one out of every five new single-family housing units purchased in the United States is a manufactured house yet for most Americans, mobile homes and parks connote negative stereotypes associated with transient living and low-income occupants. With a history contrary to this perception and improved standards of construction since the 1970s, manufactured homes offer an affordable alternative to conventional site-built homes, especially for senior citizens on a fixed income.  The same impetus for affordable housing that drove the post war suburbanization of America, incentivized trailer manufacturers to develop new competitive designs for manufactured housing during the 1950s and 60s.  Centered in the Midwest and capitalizing on the existing network of manufacturers supplying the automotive industry, manufacturers of ‘mobile homes’ proliferated, launching the American industry and the golden age of mobile home design as represented by hundreds of models with a wide range of styles and cost.  


Sustainable Rehabilitation of Homes Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The built environment accounts for nearly half of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, and in recent years architects and engineers have become committed to reducing these emissions. Energy efficiency, green building materials and sustainable technologies have increasingly become the standard in new construction, yet sustainable-based retrofits of historic buildings has lagged far behind. Despite the acknowledgement that combating climate change is the singular most important issue in building design and construction, sustainable rehabilitation of historic properties have been hampered by a number of factors, including buyer’s aversion to old floor plans, increased construction costs, current fashion trends, and a reluctance on the part of governmental preservation agencies to accept sustainable construction in preservation projects. Governmental restoration guidelines sometimes prevent the use of green materials, and adherence to “historical authenticity” sometimes eliminates the use of sustainable construction techniques. There is also a prevailing sentiment that historic properties should be preserved in accordance with the way they were first built, and that even the most sensitive sustainable improvements somehow compromises the original building. For many, the greater the historic significance of a building, the more likely that curators feel it should be given a “free pass” in meeting energy conservation standards. This discussion will explore the various sustainability and preservation issues that have arisen during the restoration and rehabilitation of over 20 homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright over a 30 year period.