{"id":132563,"date":"2025-11-14T07:42:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T07:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/132563\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T07:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T07:42:14","slug":"a-competition-seeks-proposals-to-redesign-toilet-facilities-at-the-gropius-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/132563\/","title":{"rendered":"A competition seeks proposals to redesign toilet facilities at the Gropius House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Historic New England<\/a> has launched a competition<\/a> to design a separate, permanent public restroom<\/a> for Gropius House, the Lincoln, Massachusetts<\/a>, home of Bauhaus<\/a> founder Walter Gropius<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since the historical site<\/a> opened to the public in 1984, visitors have had to use a porta potty located outside of the home\u2019s former garage, turned into a repurposed welcome center. As a designated national landmark, and one of the preservation organization\u2019s most visited sites, the temporary bathroom relieves thousands of design enthusiasts a year.<\/p>\n

\"backThe house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000 and is one of Historic New England\u2019s most visited sites. (Courtesy Historic New England)<\/p>\n

Beyond the logistical headaches presented by the Gropius House\u2019s unconventional toilet set-up, it\u2019s also an eyesore. \u201cAn ugly Port-O-Let is the first thing people see,\u201d said Vin Cipolla, President and CEO of Historic New England. \u201cNow a distinguished group of architects and journalists can [interpret] its forward-thinking design, they are cultivating new interest in an important modernist building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"theThe garage is used as a welcome center for the historic property. The bathroom facilities are located in the lone portable toilet. (Courtesy Historic New England)<\/p>\n

The program and marching orders for competition entrants is simple: Building a place that\u2019s a place to go, literally. The scope will also include the redesign of the current visitor center. With this open call, Historic New England hopes to foster new discourse that might expand on Gropius\u2019s expansive design legacy. To do so, the initiative will comprise of two parallel competitions: one for practicing design professionals and another for architecture and design students.<\/p>\n

The competition jury includes:<\/p>\n

Antoine Picon, G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, Harvard Graduate School of Design
\nNader Tehrani, Founding Principal, NADAAA; faculty and former dean, Cooper Union School of Architecture
\nPhilip Kennicott, Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning art and architecture critic, The Washington Post
\nSuzanne Stephens, writer, editor, and critic in the field of architecture and faculty in architecture, Barnard College
\nTanja Hwang, curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art\u00ad<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are launching this initiative as an exceptional opportunity to conduct a global survey of the Bauhaus\u2019s enduring influence \u2013 how its philosophy continues to shape contemporary design practice,\u201d said Allen Kolkowitz, a Trustee of Historic New England in a press release.<\/p>\n

\"archivalThe Gropius House was originally constructed in 1938. (Courtesy Historic New England)<\/p>\n

Originally constructed in 1938, the house represents a pivotal moment in architectural history. At the time, Gropius\u2019s Bauhaus had been shuttered by the Nazis due to its supposedly degenerate modern art, and Gropius was forced to flee to the United States. He landed at Harvard, a school that had been beholden to the Beaux-Arts, with both teachers and students seeing no need for change. But for some modernist at the time, it was an opportunity to get a seismic architect for Harvard\u2019s architecture dean\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n

\"theThe property spans a 4-acre, rural site. (Courtesy Historic New England)<\/p>\n

To sweeten the pie, some architectural grandees helped Gropius answer a call of nature\u2014they landed on a 4-acre site about ten miles away from the university for the master architect\u2019s working home and office. In designing the home, Gropius envisioned the house as both a private residence and tool for teaching, a way to share Bauhaus principles with his future students. With this new competition, his ambitious continue for a new generation of architects and designers. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see what this talented group comes up with,\u201d said Cipolla.<\/p>\n

More information about the competition and the entry requirements can be accessed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

James McCown is an architectural journalist and the author of The Home Office Reimagined: Spaces to Think, Reflect, Work, Dream, and Wonder<\/a>\u00a0(Rizzoli, 2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Historic New England has launched a competition to design a separate, permanent public restroom for Gropius House, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-132563","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}