The Aluminaire House was designed as a case study by architects A. Lawrence Kocher and
Albert Frey in April, 1931. The three-story house, made of donated materials and built in ten days, was the first all-metal house in the United States. It was shown in the
Grand Central Palace
The Grand Central Palace was an exhibition hall in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The name refers to two structures, both located on Lexington Avenue near Grand Central Terminal.
The original structure was a six-story structure built in 1893 ...
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
The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines".
The league dates from 1881, when Cass Gilbert organized meetings at the Salmagundi Club for ...
show sponsored by the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(MOMA). The MOMA show was titled ''The International Style - Architecture Since 1922'', which became the basis of a book by
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...
and
Henry Russell Hitchcock
Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture.
Early life
He ...
, ''The International Style'', a manifesto for the
International Style of architecture.
History
After the early exhibitions, the house was sold to architect
Wallace K. Harrison
Wallace Kirkman Harrison (September 28, 1895 – December 2, 1981) was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He is ...
for $1,000 (), 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.
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
failed, but the owners agreed to donate the house to the
New York Institute of Technology
The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a private research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long Island, and one in Manhattan. Additionally, it has a cybersecu ...
, which reassembled the house on the school's Central Islip campus.
[ The house was transferred to the Aluminaire House Foundation after the Central Islip Campus was closed, disassembled and put into storage. A 2013 proposal to reassemble the house on a site in ]Sunnyside Gardens, Queens
Sunnyside Gardens is a community within Sunnyside, Queens, Sunnyside, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The area was the first development in the United States patterned after the ideas of the garden city movement initiated in ...
, 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.Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...
, home of other works by Frey.Palm Springs Art Museum
The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) was founded in 1938, and is a regional art, natural science and performing arts institution for Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United St ...
, pending a $475,000 fund raising effort for its restoration.
Description
The 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.
See also
* Dymaxion House
The Dymaxion House was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques. Fuller designed several versions of the house at different times — all of them ...
, a contemporary proposal by architect Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...
for a mass-produced prefabricated house
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.aluminaire.org/
Aluminaire House
at the New York Institute of Technology
Houses in Nassau County, New York
Modernist architecture in New York (state)
Prefabricated houses