Restoration kicked off today at the storied “House of Tomorrow” located in the Indiana Dunes National Park in Beverly Shores. The $4 million exterior restoration is being funded by the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) Legacy Restoration Fund, which is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Indiana Landmarks President Marsh Davis joined representatives of Indiana Dunes National Park, federal elected officials’ offices and the firms that will execute the restoration to mark the beginning of the project, which is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025. Between now and then, Indiana Landmarks will develop a plan for the completion of interior restoration and rehabilitation.

“It’s official: There is a tomorrow for the House of Tomorrow,” Davis said. “This day is a tribute to the many people who have championed this incredible structure and worked for so long to bring it back to its original vision.”

Designed by Chicago architect George Fred Keck to demonstrate how modern conveniences would affect home life, the House of Tomorrow was featured at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and then moved by truck and barge across Lake Michigan to its present location. It is now owned by Indiana Dunes National Park, which is undertaking the restoration project based on a plan led and funded by Indiana Landmarks.

Structural repair will include strengthening the home’s iconic spoke and wheel steel structural system, and repair and replacement of the concrete floor. Exterior restoration will strive to reflect the house’s original construction while incorporating modern technology and conveniences to make it livable today. For example, triple-glazed windows will be utilized in the new exterior to improve energy efficiency.

While the house became known for its copper cladding, that cladding will not be reflected in the restored house since it was not part of Keck’s original 1933 design but was installed in 1934 when the original “temporary” siding failed. The restored house will feature glass walls on the second and third floors, with the first floor finished in a smooth board painted black. Original exterior railings surrounding the exterior terraces will be restored and reinstalled, as will stairs that were lost over the decades to deterioration.

Significant interior features such as original Carrera glass wall cladding, metal baseboards and parquet floor and walls will be salvaged and stored for future interior restoration.

The work is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025 – in time for the 90th anniversary of the relocation of the house from the Century of Progress to its current location.

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Downloadable images and B-roll at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/9ioycfl1k943unvkxvjdm/h?rlkey=88ugt7r0qa2rqm3ds4m6dlfpr&dl=0

Media contact: Jen Schmits Thomas, 317-441-2487, jen@jtprinc.com

About the House of Tomorrow
The House of Tomorrow was one of five exhibit houses from the 1933-34 “Century of Progress” World’s Fair in Chicago that were moved by truck and barge across Lake Michigan to Beverly Shores, Ind., after the fair closed.

The houses remained in private hands until the land they occupied became part of the Indiana Dunes National Park in the ’60s and ’70s.

The houses deteriorated until Indiana Landmarks leased them from the Indiana Dunes National Park, then sub-leased them to tenants who restored them. It’s a strategy that’s saved four of the homes, but the scale, cost and complexity of rehabilitating the House of Tomorrow—the most architecturally innovative and historically significant of the collection—put it out of reach for most potential lessees. Significantly altered since its World’s Fair days, the House of Tomorrow has been vacant since 1999.

Media in the ’30s called it “America’s First Glass House.” It predated Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson’s Glass House by many years. “The House of Tomorrow…is one of the true early monuments of American modernism, brimming over with a uniquely American idealism and earnestness about the twentieth century,” declared noted architecture critic Paul Goldberger, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

To help save it, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated it a National Treasure in 2016. Of the 80-plus National Treasures in the U.S., the House of Tomorrow is the only one in Indiana.

Event Speakers (in order of appearance):
• Marsh Davis, President of Indiana Landmarks
• Jose Diaz, Regional Director for U.S. Senator Todd Young
• Tony Ferraro, Regional Director for U.S. Senator Mike Braun
• Elizabeth Johnson, Director of Projects and Grants for U.S. Representative Frank Mrvan
• Chris Pergiel, Deputy Superintendent, Indiana Dunes National Park
• Charles Hasbrouck, Director at bKL Architecture, lead project architect
• Jeff Berglund, President of the Building Division, Berglund Construction