After a strange four-year saga, a very unique prefab is finally getting a “home”.

According to Curbed, Aluminaire House, the 1931 modernist home designed by Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher, was the subject of a heated fight between Queens, New York preservationists and two architects several years ago. During that fight, the home had been sitting in a storage facility on Long Island, as it waited to see if a place would be found for it in Queens.

While Queens didn’t work out, Palm Springs, California did.

And now the Aluminaire is on its way out west, where it will eventually be assembled on a site close to the Palm Springs Art Museum. And the story of how the trip, and the new home came about has its own twists.

Architects Michael Schwarting and Frances Campani, had a vision for a low-rise development in Sunnyside that would have included the Aluminaire as its centerpiece.

“We thought it was a no-brainer,” said Schwarting. “We thought it was absolutely the right place.”

The proposed site for the Aluminaire was a former playground within the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District, which meant that the architects would need to secure Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approval before it could be put in place.

This did not go as planned, as more than 50 people testified at a hearing about the matter, and many of them vehemently opposed its placement in Queens.

“This silver, modern, spaceship-looking edifice was going to be plopped down in the middle of our community,” said City Council member Jimmy Van Bramer.

“Whether you like it aesthetically or not, it just didn’t belong there.”

Schwarting and Campani said that the reason they selected Sunnyside was specifically because of its layout and its low-slung feel.

“We wanted a site within a low-rise, high-density New York neighborhood to showcase the building as it was originally intended, ‘an easily constructed, low cost, modern urban house prototype,’” said the duo.

Both the Aluminaire and Sunnyside Gardens were included in a 1932 exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art that showcased innovation in modern, affordable housing.

Once the LPC ruled against placing the Aluminaire in Queens, the city of Palm Springs stepped in. Mayor Robert Moon led a campaign to raise $600,000 to transport and rebuild the home in the city.

While about a quarter of the money has been raised, it was enough to get the Aluminaire on the road, and preservationists in Palm Springs are optimistic that they can restore the home to its former glory.

“New York’s loss is our gain. Now it’s being appreciated.” ##

 

(Image credits are as shown above.)

 

Submitted by RC Williams to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.