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House of Tomorrow
West of the Cypress Log Cabin is the House of
Tomorrow, creation of Chicago architect George Fred Keck. The first
floor was designed as the service area, originally containing the
garage and an airplane hangar. World's Fair optimists assumed every
future family would own an airplane. The second and third floors
were the essence of the house, containing the main living spaces
and a solarium. The three-story, steel-framed building was originally
clad in glass on the second and third floors, yet stands today with
typical wood-framed exterior walls and operable windows. Keck defied
mechanical engineers, who said that due to the expansive use of
glass the house couldn't be heated, and installed a floor to ceiling
"curtain wall system". Instead of heat loss during the
winter, the level of solar heat gain actually reduced the need for
mechanical heating. During the summer the solar gain was too great
for the home's revolutionary air-conditioning system to handle,
and it failed. When Robert Bartlett moved the house to Beverly Shores,
he replaced the glass walls with operable windows to allow for proper
air circulation.
House of Tomorrow, front elevation,
taken in 1994 by Jack Boucher, Photographer, Historic American Buildings
Survey, National Park Service.
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House of Tomorrow, photo taken
in 1933, from the book"Chicago Architecture and Design"
by George A. Larson, Jay Pridmore, date unknown.
House of Tomorrow , "Yesterday's
Houses of Tomorrow Innovative American Homes 1850 to 1950"
by H. Ward Jandl, with essays by John A. Burns, AIA, and Michael
J. Auer, 1991.
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