![]() ![]() “I got a call from one of the neighbors saying that the new owners tried to demolish the Futuro by dropping a wrecking ball on it, busting out one of the windows and cracking the top,” said Donaldson. Anna Bahney/CNNĭonaldson, who gave architectural tours in the area, always brought groups to the parking lot to see the Futuro, which was brush painted with green latex paint at the time.īut when new owners purchased the Design Center in 2002, the Futuro had to go. The interior has original details, including coffee tables that can be used to make a pullout bed. After it failed to sell as the home of the future, it was used as a Navy recruiting office for a time and eventually stashed in a parking lot behind the San Diego Design Center, all but abandoned. The Futuro Donaldson rescued was made by a company in Philadelphia and delivered to an entrepreneur in San Deigo in 1969. But once I started finding out how unique the Futuro was, I really got involved. “I really wasn’t interested in restoring it and keeping it. “I was just thinking of saving the building,” he said. So when this Futuro was crushed under a wrecking ball, he had to step in. Only 67 remain, with 20 in the United States.ĭonaldson, a preservation architect who was President Barack Obama’s appointee as chair of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, has made saving old buildings his life’s work. As many as 100 Futuros were built between 19, according to The Futuro House, a site documenting the history and whereabouts of the homes. Futuros were initially manufactured in Finland, then licensed to companies worldwide. Paul Kozelįirst designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen as a ski chalet, the idea behind the Futuro was to create a lightweight home that could be placed in a variety of landscapes. A restored Futuro used as a vacation home, in Idyllwild, California. ![]()
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