House of the Future: Leisurama

The Leisurama "House of the Future" of 1963 and 1964 unintentionally originated from a historic event that took place in 1959 at the American National Exhibition held in Moscow. A popular attraction at the Exhibition was a futuristic kitchen chock full of high-tech General Electric appliance innovations. It was designed by legendary industrial designer Raymond Loewy.

Then-Vice President Richard Nixon's famous debate with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev took place in this kitchen. It was the futuristic kitchen itself that was the subject that spurred the debate. After Nixon told Khrushchev that such high-tech kitchens were freely available to most Americans, Khrushchev, of course, scoffed and Nixon counterattacked.

The so-called "kitchen debate" became a historical event only because journalist William Safire was able to smuggle videotapes and photographs out of the Soviet Union.

Raymond Loewy

Raymond Loewy's design of the famous futuristic kitchen was actually commissioned by Herbert Sadkin's New York City real estate development company, All-State Properties. Because the Nixon-Khrushchev event had brought unintended huge publicity to Loewy's high-tech kitchen itself, All-State Proper hired Loewy again to go beyond the kitchen and design a mass-produced high-tech house, dubbed "Leisurama."

Loewy, best known for designing the Greyhound bus and Studebaker automobiles, assigned the Leisurama project to architect Andrew Geller.

The Leisurama project, however, turned out to be more a revolutionary marketing concept than a revolutionary design. Loewy's design firm and All-State Properties wound up successfully pitching Leisurama to the Macy's department store chain.

Macy's

The first Leisurama house was built as a fully-functional model home display on the ninth floor of Macy's Manhattan department store.

The marketing concept: the Leisurama house itself was only part of a package deal that included an oceanfront lot. There would be 200 planned houses, each priced between $10,000 and $12,000, and each built for 200 oceanfront lots on Montauk, Long Island. Besides the house and the lot, each Leisurama house came fully furnished, including all appliances, plates, towels, and even toothbrushes.

A stucco-faced South Florida variation of the Leisurama house was also developed almost simultaneously by All-State Properties for the new community of Lauderhill.

At the 1964 New York World's Fair, two Leisurama houses were exhibited.

Leisurama today

In total, the Leisurama project wasn't a success for Macy's and All-State only because they had both underestimated construction costs.

Most Leisurama models have managed to survive to this day, albeit in varying states of repair and disrepair. As of 2006, the average surviving Leisurama house sold for $500,000.

SOURCES:

Leisurama, Designboom

"When a slice of beach utopia could be had for under $1700", Julia C. Mead, New York Times

"Macy's Montauk Houses", Carole Paquette, New York Times

"Leisurama comes of age", Jake Gorst, Suffolk Life