Menokin Glass House Project in the Wall Street Journal

Feature
News

Published
November, 2021

Tags
Menokin Project, Cultural Heritage, Media

Machado Silvetti’s Menokin Glass House Project was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal by architectural critic Michael Lewis, who describes the project as, “the most fiercely ambitious historic restoration project in America today.”

Neither Ruin nor Replica

The Menokin Glass House project involves the stabilization, restoration and interpretation of a deteriorated 18th century plantation home and its grounds, representing what was irreparably lost on the building with glass and a semi-transparent liner. Working closely with preservation technology experts and the structural engineering team, Machado Silvetti developed a design strategy that adds three new layers which stabilize, enclose and re-materialize the crumbling structure. The interdependent relationship between the proposed Liner and the existing historic fabric, both structurally and visually allows for a highly efficient and innovative approach to restoration and rehabilitation.

Clockwise from top right: Existing condition of the Menokin House; Rendering of the Glass House project at night; Interior rendering

Michael Lewis describes the unique means of experience the Glass House approach will offer to visitors and the broader historic preservation community: “Its glass planes can be read as solid wall or insubstantial air; look once and you see the house in all its volumetric absoluteness, look again and see the jagged ruin... Menokin, by taking into account what we now understand of the elasticity of visual perception, is our first important postmodern restoration. It is a cannonball flung between the feet of the historic preservation community.”

Read the full article here.

Related Content

  • The Menokin Foundation aspires to approach the conservation and interpretation of the 18th century historical Georgian mansion in a truly innovative and revolutionary way. Their philosophy is to stabilize and exhibit the historic fabric that remains, while giving the public a unique understanding of the irreplaceable portions of the artifact, and by representing them with a completely different material; glass. Read about the full scale of the project here.

  • On November 20, 2015 Jeffry Burchard and Patrick Ruggiero sat down with Jorge Silvetti to discuss the firm’s approach to Cultural heritage, primarily surrounding The Menokin Stabilization, The Getty, Villa, Qasr al Muwaiji projects. Read a portion of that conversation here.

  • Project updates, upcoming events, construction features, & site visits — Continue exploring news articles and stories here.