The Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition was part of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The Fair's theme that year was a Century of Progress, and celebrated man's innovations in architecture, science, technology and transportation. The "Homes of Tomorrow" exhibition was one of the most noteworthy exhibits of the Fair, and showcased man's modern innovations in architecture, design, and building materials.
In addition to several unique art deco and contemporary designs for a dozen model homes, futuristic home furnishings and accouterments such as a personal helicopter pad were anticipated. Several architects and firms used the model homes to demonstrate their techniques for the pre-fabricated home and new materials. Baked enamel and Rostone — a man-made type of masonry that could be molded into specific shapes and produced in various colors — were hailed as affordable and durable home construction options.
The following homes were showcased in the exhibit which ran the duration of the fair:
- Weiboldt-Rostone House, Walter Schuler, Architect
- Good Housekeeping Stran-Steel House and Stran-Steel Garden Home, O'Dell & Wirt C. Rowland, Architects
- House of Tomorrow, George Fred Keck, Architect
- Masonite House: Frazier & Raftery, Architects
- Armco Ferro Enamel Frameless Steel House, Robert Smith, Jr. Architect
- House for Brick Manufacturers Association of America: Andrew N. Rebori, Architect
- Florida Tropical House, Robert Law Weed, Architect
- American Forest Products & Lumber Industries House: Ernest A. Grunsfeld, Jr. Architect
- General House, Inc., Howard T. Fisher, Architect
- Design for Living Home, John C.B. Moore and Horsley & Wood, Architects
- Cypress Log Cabin
- Universal Houses' Country Home.
After the exposition ended in 1934, Robert Bartlett purchased five of the homes, the Wieboldt-Rostone House, the House of Tomorrow, the Florida Tropical House, the Cypress Log Cabin, and the Armco-Ferro House, loaded them on barges and floated them across Lake Michigan to Beverly Shores, Indiana. The original homes have survived the last 75 years on the shores of Lake Michigan and are being restored through a partnership between the National Park Service, Indiana, the Indiana Landmarks, and private individuals. As visitors passed through the homes during the fair, many bought plans and erected the designs in other states.
Famous quotes containing the words homes, tomorrow and/or exhibition:
“The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Y’know plenty of people, in their right mind, thought they saw things that didn’t exist, y’know, like flying saucers. The light was just right, and the angle and the imagination. Oh boy, if that’s what it is, then this is just an ordinary night. You and I are going to go home and go to sleep and tomorrow when we get up that sun’s gonna shine. Just like yesterday. Good ol’ yesterday.”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Steve Andrews (Steven McQueen)
“Work, as we usually think of it, is energy expended for a further end in view; play is energy expended for its own sake, as with children’s play, or as manifestation of the end or goal of work, as in “playing” chess or the piano. Play in this sense, then, is the fulfillment of work, the exhibition of what the work has been done for.”
—Northrop Frye (1912–1991)