A few years after a relocation and reconstruction effort brought a Frank Lloyd Wright home from New Jersey to Arkansas, another Wright design has been deconstructed, shipped, and set to open to the public in an entirely new location.
The R.W. Lindholm House, known as Mäntylä, was a Usonian-style home in Cloquet, Minnesota, designed by Wright in 1952, The 2,300-square-foot home built of painted concrete block, red tidewater cypress and Ludowici tile was originally owned by the same Minnesota businessman who hired Wright to build his famous gas station. Over the last two years, the structure has begun to deteriorate, and nearvy development began to encroach on the property.
After attempting to sell and finding no buyers, owners Julene and Peter McKinney decided to donate the home to Usonian Preservation Inc., a nonprofit corporation affiliated with Polymath Park in Acme, Pennsylvania, a collection of Wright home for rent run by Tom and Heather Papinchak.
The home was deconstructed in April and May and moved to Polymath Park, where it will be fully reconstructed by spring of 2017. The Papinchak have collected quite a number of Wright and Wright-influenced projects over the years at the 130-acre park, including the Elizabeth and Don Duncan House (1957), which they moved there in 2007, as well as the two Usonian-style structures by Wright apprentice Peter Berndtson that were on the property when they originally purchased it.
"As with a small number of other relocated ,Wright-designed Usonians, notably the Gordon and Bachman-Wilson houses, a meticulous reconstruction according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards will be undertaken," said Tim Quigley, co-chair of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s Advocacy Committee.
Quigley and Ron Scherubel, both committee co-chairs, brokered the deal to move the home and will monitor reconstruction with Conservancy board member and Buffalo, New York-based architect Patrick J. Mahoney.
"Our intention is to keep the spirit of these families and their house alive by providing a platform for our guests to immerse themselves in architecture and find a true sense of what Wright intended for his clients," says Tom Papinchak.
Frank Lloyd Wright House Is Rebuilt Anew, Piece by Piece, in Arkansas [Curbed]