Historic recreations are always an honor, but we were particularly enthusiastic to celebrate this lesser known hero.  The Aluminaire House debuted in 1931 as the first metal house in the U.S.  Designed by architects Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher, this marvel was an example of modular housing to be built within NYC's Grand Central Palace exhibition hall for the Allied Arts & Industries Architectural League’s 46th Annual Exhibition.  To celebrate the anniversary of its reconstruction, Skyline was approached by Mark Davis and Modernism Week and commissioned to create an animation showcasing the Aluminaire House in its original 1931 setting of Grand Central Palace.  The immersive experience was initially presented “on the big screen” at the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Annenberg Theater.  The animation offers rare insight into the spaces. While the building has been lovingly restored, it is not open for interior tours, and minimal imagery exists of the original exhibition.  Plans are underway to present the animation on-site at the museum, as well as online, to help tell the Aluminaire story.  

The Aluminaire House was largely uncelebrated after its 1931 debut. It was purchased during the exhibition and relocated to a private property in Long Island, where it was later reconfigured.  Jon Michael Schwarting and Frances Campani came to its rescue when it was under threat of demolition in 1987.  They eventually led NYIT students in deconstructing and rebuilding it on NYIT’s Central Islip campus. After that campus was primarily closed, they stored the parts again and worked for years to find a permanent location for it.

In an agreement with the Palm Springs Art Museum, the Aluminaire House finally found its forever home in July of 2020 and was reconstructed between July 2023 and February 2024.  Although it was not designed for the desert, its origin as an exhibition house along with Frey’s deep connection to Palm Springs make the site a fitting location.