Turning The House Upside Down

15 Putnam Street in Buffalo, NY

I love this story, found via Archinect. Working under the leadership of Frank Fantatuzzi and Brad Wales [scroll down for bio at that link] architects/professors at Buffalo University, a graduate studio class came up with a concept that evolved from demolition to deconstruction to full-blown art-project.

Open House, a story in Art Voice, describes how a derelict property that was on track for demolition was turned into a test lab for this group of architects and students:

Once Fantauzzi and Wales examined the house—a solidly built, three-story structure whose cramped rooms disguised abundant space, with an empty lot beside it that would accommodate dumpsters and serve as a construction staging area—they hatched a more ambitious plan. Instead of demolishing the 107-year-old house, they would save it. Instead of a transient work, a piece about the processes of deconstruction that ended when the last timbers were carted away, they would make a permanent piece of public (for the neighborhood) and private (for the owner) art…

In addition to returning the structure to a single-family dwelling, opening up the interior to reveal its hidden space and stripping away the siding to the original clapboard and shingle—big projects by themselves but hardly radical—the students would saw off the entire front façade of the house, disengaging it completely.

They would then put rollers on the bottom of the façade and place it on a lateral track made of heavy steel I-beams, so it could be pushed from side to side, opening the interior to the street.

When that was accomplished, they would attach the façade to a vertical track of the same fabrication, and lift the entire façade about six feet, using a handcrank from a turn-of-the-last-century, manual industrial elevator Fantauzzi harvested from the basement of his building on Main Street.

Then they would attach the façade to an axis and spin it 360 degrees.

The project is still in progress… If you watch the video that accompanies the piece you can see the sliding façade in action. Architecture students busting their asses on some insane project is hardly out of the ordinary, but I love that this is real world stuff that addresses community issues of blight, preservation and urban life and the teamwork that went into realizing it is inspiring - the graduate class came up with the concept, but its execution has involved two additional undergrad classes as well as skilled expert advisers and sponsorship from local businesses. I’m looking forward to seeing the 360 degree spinning action!