Frank Lloyd Wright's Westcott House Restoration

      Restoration of the Burton J. Westcott house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, transformed a deteriorating structure into a dazzling house museum. The house, built in 1908, is the only example of Wright’s prairie-style architecture in Ohio. Durable Slate served as the construction manager for this restoration – taking the building from an altered and dilapidated state and returning it to its former glory.

     The home had been divided into apartments and had suffered drastic damage over the years despite efforts by recent owners to halt deterioration and preserve the building. Durable Slate brought its considerable expertise in restoration and project management as construction manager for this project.

     During the restoration of what Harvard professor Neil Levine called “one of the top twenty Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the world,” Durable Slate uncovered new evidence of original architectural details which augmented the architects’ research on the building. Further research by Durable Slate, such as locating a vintage bathtub to match a remaining original fixture, or tracking down a radiator escutcheon just like the originals, made possible what Tom Schmidt of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has deemed “a world class restoration.”

     While preserving as much of the original structure as possible, the restoration involved extensive structural stabilization, selective demolition of alterations to the building, updating of systems (including the installation of an invisible geothermal heating system), and complete interior and exterior restoration – walls, floors, doors, windows, Wright-designed furniture, bath fixtures, light fixtures, roofing, site work, and landscaping.

     Durable Slate followed the U.S. Secretary of the Interior guidelines and standards throughout the restoration process.

     Frank Lloyd Wright's Westcott House first opened to the public as a museum in October, 2005.