New York’s famed Museum of Modern Art is hoping to borrow Arlington’s rare, World War II-era prefabricated steel house for the museum’s upcoming architecture exhibit.
Arlington’s Lustron house — one of the 2,680 that were created in the U.S. between 1948 and 1950 as an affordable way to relieve the nation’s housing crunch — is currently sitting disassembled in storage while officials try to identify a permanent site for the historic dwelling.
The unit, called the Krowne Lustron House, was donated to the county in 2006, when its owner decided to build a new house on the property.
“They’re like metal filing cabinets that you live in,” Arlington planner Cynthia Liccese-Torres said of the homes that were mass-manufactured in a converted warplane factory and were once touted as “the house America has been waiting for.”
“There were originally 11 built in the county, and there are only five left, four still standing,” she said.
The pastel-colored, porcelain, steel-enameled, ranch-style homes have been slowly disappearing from the American landscape as the value of land surpasses the value of the old prefab units, which originally sold for $10,000 each.
If the county board approves the loan, Arlington staff will transport the home to MoMA in time for the museum to assemble the 3,000-plus pieces of it at the entrance to its Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling exhibit, scheduled to run from June through November.
“This is a great opportunity for the county,” planner Michael Leventhal said. “Hopefully this will be enough of a highlight of the building that when it comes back, we’ll be able to set it up in Arlington.”
Disassembling the two-bedroom, one-bath home that was donated to the county took two to four men a total of 1,040 hours, county officials said.
Leventhal said officials have identified several potential county sites for the Lustron but likely would need to rely on donations to fund the project.
While several states have listed their Lustrons on the National Register of Historic Places, Virginia has not, Liccese-Torres said.
The Lustron house
» Creator: Carl Strandlund
» Architects: Roy Burton Blass and Morris H. Beckman
» Years built: 1948-1950
» Number built: 2,498
» Design: Two bedrooms, one bath, 1,000 squarefeet
» Cost: $6,000-$10,000
» Structure: Exposed steel with porcelain-enamel finish, steel framing, roof trusses, roof tiles
» Exteriors: Pink, tan, yellow, aqua, blue, green or gray
» Interiors: Beige or gray
