I have some fascinating photos for you today, courtesy of Lou Perry (who took them) and Sue B. (Lou's daughter, who scanned them). Lou visited a Kissimmee tourist attraction known as a Xanadu House. There were other Xanadu Houses, and they were a series of experimental homes built to showcase examples of computers and automation in the home in the United States. (All of today's info is from a Wikipedia article).
There it is, with plenty of organic curves; it has a pleasing look, to my eye anyway. The architectural project began in 1979, and during the early 1980s three houses were built in different parts of the United States: one each in Kissimmee, Florida; Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The houses included novel construction and design techniques, and became popular tourist attractions during the 1980s.
The Xanadu Houses were notable for their easy, fast, and cost-effective construction as self-supporting monolithic domes of polyurethane foam without using concrete. They were ergonomically designed, and contained some of the earliest home automation systems. The Kissimmee Xanadu, designed by Roy Mason, was the most popular, and at its peak was attracting 1000 visitors every day.
Bob Masters was an early pioneer of houses built of rigid insulation. Before conceiving the Xanadu House concept, Masters designed and created inflatable balloons to be used in the construction of houses. He was inspired by architect Stan Nord Connolly's Kesinger House in Denver, Colorado, one of the earliest homes built from insulation. Masters built his first balloon-constructed house exterior in 1969 in less than three days during a turbulent snowstorm, using the same methods later used to build the Xanadu houses.
Masters was convinced that these dome-shaped homes built of foam could work for others, so he decided to create a series of show homes in the United States. Masters's business partner Tom Gussel chose the name "Xanadu" for the homes, a reference to Xanadu, the summer capital of Yuan, which is prominently featured in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem Kubla Khan.
The first Xanadu House opened in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. It was designed by architect Stewart Gordon and constructed by Masters in 1979. It was 4,000 square feet (370 m2) in area, and featured a geodesic greenhouse. 100,000 people visited the new attraction in its first summer.
By the early 1990s, the Xanadu houses began to lose popularity because the technology they used was quickly becoming obsolete, and as a result the houses in Wisconsin and Tennessee were demolished, while the Xanadu House in Kissimmee continued to operate as a public visitor attraction until it was closed in 1996.
It was consequently put up for sale in 1997 and was sold for office and storage use. By 2001, the Kissimmee house had suffered greatly from mold and mildew throughout the interior due to a lack of maintenance since being used as a visitor attraction, it was put up for sale again for an asking price of US$2 million. By October 2005, the last of the Xanadu houses had been demolished, following years of abandonment and use by the homeless.
Fascinating! It's a shame that this home couldn't be updated to continue to appeal to tourists. Or that it was not deemed to be worth saving as a historical artifact. But that's how these things go.
MANY THANKS to Lou and Sue for sharing these great photos of a Florida landmark that has been gone for decades!
Major-
ReplyDeleteI was one of those 1,000 daily visitors who visited the Kissimmee location, and although it was, shall we say, an "interesting" experience, there was little to recommend it; and the demise of all three locations was easily predicted. The inside was truly hideous. (I like the 6th image, where the roof of the building seems to be exercising its 'blowhole'. Why am I not surprised-?)
Thanks to Lou and Sue for sharing this odd roadside attraction.
I love the look of this home, but a polyurethane roof? Wouldn't that be really fragile? Not to mention very flammable? What if a rather small tree limb fell on the roof, wouldn't it just crash through? And hurricanes?... fuggetaboutit! But until one of those things happens... It looks great!
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the Kubla Khan reference, Xanadu is, of course, the name of a film that came out about the same time that these homes were built. The movie was a dud (I've never seen it). Maybe we should expect to see Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly lounging inside this house.
The varied design of the sections of the house is really interesting and alien-looking. This is what I imagine a Martian house to look like in Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles".
Many thanks to Lou Perry, Sue, and Major for introducing us to this 'fantasy' house.
Fascinating! But "mold and mildew" sounds gross. I know that can be a problem in parts of Florida, just in the average closet full of clothes.
ReplyDeleteNow I have Olivia Newton-John singing in my head. But that is not a bad thing.
Thank you Lou, Sue, and Major!
We went to the Kissimmee Xanadu house in 1984. I didn’t realize or at least remember that it was built in 1979. It kinda seemed older to me. It smelled like a cross between a dentist office and my grandparent’s basement in North Carolina ( their house was built new in 1939!) pretty much by the time EPCOT CENTER joined Walt Disney World , those smaller florida tourist attractions suffered …gator farms , mineral springs parks and things like Xanadu began to be bypassed . Places like Florida Festival and Cypress Gardens held on a little longer. Another popular central Florida tourist attraction was the Tupperware headquarters and museum. They had displays of historic Tupperware items, prototypes and wooden master molds. There was a museum of the history of the sealed container that even had Egyptian food containers, and then there was the Tupperware home of fine living it was almost like a large TV set. We would walk through very modern kitchens and dining room, rooms and bedrooms even patios and an artificial outdoor area set up like a campground of course everything used Tupperware products and also Tupperware products that were being tested. That weren’t quite available yet. It was actually pretty interesting. I think I heard it closed up when Tupperware began to go through bankruptcy. Thanks, major, Lou and Sue!
ReplyDelete….. thanks Major , Lou and Sue for sharing these images ( not for causing Tupperware to go bankrupt)
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing the moldering remains of the Kissimmee Xanadu house in early January of 2004. We were headed to WDW for five days at Fort Wilderness and had to go to Camping World to pick up a few items before setting up camp. As I recall, it was just a short ways down the street, with an overgrown parking lot and grounds. I remember thinking “what a weird concept for cheap-looking tourist trap” and wondering when it had been built. I had stopped at Camping World with my family on our first Florida trip in ‘79 (my parents had a rooftop storage shell and a generator - which I think we used exactly twice - installed on the brand-new Shasta mini-motorhome) and it was out by itself on the middle of nowhere. By 2004 the area had grown into a crowded commercial district.
ReplyDeleteI could swear I took some photos, but they apparently didn’t impress Mrs. Chuck enough to make it into a photo album, and since the culls and dupes are in storage I won’t be seeing them any time soon.
So cool Lou (and Nanook and Mike) got to see it and that Lou documented it in its heyday. Thanks again for sharing, Sue and Major!
I would think Fred Flintstone would be attracted to that architecture. If my parents had stopped there on the way to Walt Disney world it would have made me crazy! Were lost Tupperware lids stored at the museum?
ReplyDeleteThanks Lou and Sue and Major as well.
Zach
LOVE them. Can just about see the roller disco roaming the streets. Thank Sue.
ReplyDeleteMS
This is the first I’ve heard of these projects, thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe Sprayed foam technology is fairly well-established now for insulation but I’ve never heard of doing the whole building out of it. I foresee many issues. SPF for exterior exposure now is limited to roofs, mostly in hot, dry desert regions since moisture in the deck can cause failures. Also, these roofs are usually coated with a polyurethane coating to protect from UV light. I’ve designed several foam roofs in my career and when properly done, it’s a good system.
But these houses are hideous and it’s easy to see how the practice never took off. Few people want to live in things like this unless it’s all that is available (on the Moon, for example), which is mostly why these alternate technologies fade away.
Thank you, Lou, Sue, and Major for these views.
JG
Nanook, hey, at least you saw Xanadu! Love it or hate it, it is a piece of history. Interesting to me, perhaps not so interesting to others. I wish there’s been a few photos of the interior, with the lack of people maybe it was not open to the public on the day Lou was there.
ReplyDeleteJB, sure, a tree limb could crash through the polyurethane, which is why, as President, I would ban all trees. Problem solved! I guess I assumed that the sprayed foam might have some sort of mesh or other support inside it, sort of like poured concrete, but maybe not. I remember the Xanadu film, and of course wore leg warmers and went around on roller skates everywhere. I was the most popular person! Ha, I like your idea of a Martian house from “The Martian Chronicles”, I can see it!
TokyoMagic!, I don’t get it, you dislike mold and mildew? Back in my day everything was moldy and we LIKED IT!. Ah, Olivia, she was so adorable in her day.
Mike Cozart, I wonder if the smell you mentioned was due to the polyurethane, or maybe they had new carpets. Probably not new carpets, since it sounds like it got pretty run-down. It is a shame that all the funky small roadside tourist attractions have closed, but I also understand that it’s much harder to keep a place like that going in today’s expensive world. Still, it sure would have been fun to drive through Florida and see so many of them! I don’tk now “Florida Festival”, I’ll have to look that one up. Historic Tupperware items, love it. Another place I’d never heard of. Was Tupperware originally begun in Florida? I remember hearing about Tupperware parties, and thinking that it was a weird idea.
Mike Cozart, Lou and Sue get all the credit!
Chuck, too bad your photos aren’t handy. It’s Saturday, don’t you think you should spend the day digging through dozens and dozens of boxes? It’s what Roy Rogers would have wanted you to do. It sounds like you saw Xanadu right before it was torn down, so it must have been REALLY decrepit by then. Maybe even haunted. I’m glad Lou took these photos too!
zach, ha, it does have a resemblance to the town of Bedrock. Maybe there was a record player with a pterosaur’s pointy beak as the “needle” inside. I’M NOT CRAZY! Your comment about Tupperware lids reminded me of a recent trip into my mom’s attic. There are many large plastic bins full of Christmas ornaments, all lacking lids. There is also a stack of lids for large plastic bins, and none of those lids fit any of the boxes. Argh.
MS, if there was still roller disco, there would be no wars.
JG, it does seem like I might have read about sprayed foam for possible Moon use! And yes, couldn’t the Polyurethane be painted or otherwise protected? I’d love to know how you wound up having to design anything with a foam roof, since that is unusual to say the least. It’s funny, I don’t find Xanadu to be “hideous”, maybe that says something about me. It’s not a thing of beauty either, but I guess I’m imagining that somebody with taste could have used the foam to build something very organic and cool.
Major, if I weren’t dealing with an injury that makes it uncomfortable to stand for long periods, I would absolutely go see if I could find my photos. I’m still tempted, but this is the weekend I re-fold all of my underwear to align with Standard Time. That first week after the shift is really rough.
ReplyDeleteI would think Fred Flintstone would be attracted to that architecture.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking if it were in a darker shade of sandstone instead of white, and without the lush landscaping, it would look like Owen and Beru Lars's more prosperous neighbors. I took a quick look at the Wikipedia article to see if any of the model homes were ever used as location for futuristic movies, and it doesn't mention any, which kind of surprises me.
Xanadu the movie is one of my sentimental favorites. I freely admit it's kind of a mess, but it's a beautiful mess. To borrow a quote from Gilbert and Sullivan, "Nonsense, yes, perhaps - but oh, what precious nonsense!"
Those days when a Florida vacation was a series of one-day (or less) attractions were kind of special.
These pictures are lovely, and a great way to kick off the weekend. Thanks to Lou & Sue & the Major, too!
Hey Sandman ... which way to Carousel?
ReplyDeleteSo my understanding was that the Xanadu home used polyurethane for inner walls and insulation. The exterior was a ferro-cement a kinda of spray ceramic - today some boat hulls are made from this material today a a specialized formula was used to make the underbelly tiles of the space shuttle .
ReplyDeleteMajor-
ReplyDelete"I wish there’s been a few photos of the interior..."
Sorry, I wasn't a big fan, and found the interior "design" to be lacking in almost every respect - but that's just me.
HERE's a YouTube video from 1985 which gives you an idea what the inside was like.
Major-
ReplyDelete"I wonder if the smell you mentioned was due to the polyurethane, or maybe they had new carpets".
Believe it or not, the structure used 'painted concrete floors'.
@ MIKE-
Here's an explanation for how the structure was constructed...
"The construction of the Xanadu House in Kissimmee, Florida, began with installing a concrete slab foundation and placing a 40-foot diameter tension ring to anchor the domed roof of what would become the “Great Room.” A pre-shaped vinyl balloon was then attached to the ring and inflated using high-powered fans to create the structure’s form.
Once fully inflated, the exterior surface was coated with a quick-hardening polyurethane plastic foam. This foam was produced through the rapid combination of two chemicals that expanded upon contact to 30 times their original volume, solidifying almost instantly. Multiple layers of sprayed foam created a structurally sound shell within hours, approximately five to six inches thick. After the fully cured foam, the plastic balloon form was removed for reuse.
Subsequent domes were constructed following the same process, with adjoining sections connected by wire mesh and sprayed with foam to create seamless hallways and galleries. Openings for windows, skylights, and doors were cut into the structure, and their frames were secured with additional foam. The interior walls and ceilings were coated with a ¾-inch fireproof layer, providing safety and a smooth, easy-to-clean finish. Finally, the exterior was coated with a layer of white elastomeric paint, serving as a protective and aesthetic finishing touch".
Nanook, thanks for that video. From what I could tell, there wasn't a lot of adequate space in most of the areas. Barely room to walk past someone sitting on the couch next to the fireplace. But I still like the overall appearance, at least on the outside.
ReplyDeleteI guess if there's one thing you want in order to keep down the mold and mildew in the humid Florida climate, it's lots of indoor water features.
ReplyDeleteNanook, thanks for the video link. I remember seeing that sign showing the hours of operation (obviously long inaccurate by 2004), and the “production quality” gave me the impression that I probably wouldn’t have been impressed. The computers in the video were pretty cool for 1985, even if their Cary Grant and Richard Nixon voices would have seemed a bit silly even then.
ReplyDeleteWho wouldn't want to live in a cross between the Smurfs' mushroom houses and Fred Flintstone's Bedrock house?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the off-gassing of the polyurethane during summer in the early years of that place.
There's also something about the place that's reminiscent of the Jordan Pavilion at the 1964 NYWF
ReplyDeleteI never knew "Xanadu - Home of the Future" existed until I recently found these photos in my dad's collection. How cool that a number of you have seen it! And thanks to Nanook for adding the link.
ReplyDeleteI'm chucking at all the funny comments, especially Melissa's -- about the home's indoor water features. (Mold and mildew aren't the only worries....that home would be 'MEGA bug central.')
Thanks, Major, for making today's field trip possible -- and fun!