My Futuro

Like all Futuro Houses sold in the US, this one was built in Philadelphia by the Futuro Corporation that licensed the design to build and market it in the US. Interestingly, this Futuro "House" was never actually a house at all. It was originally built as a restaurant. According to the previous owner, the restaurant was called "The Round House" in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any information on this. It was only a restaurant until 1978, when the owners passed away. The gentleman I bought it from purchased it from their estate and used it as a travel agency. As you can imagine, it attracted a lot of attention. Some time in the early eighties (I believe), he closed that business and moved the Futuro to its current location near Philadelphia. It has been there ever since. Unfortunately, it was being stored all this time on the property of a third party, so there wasn't anyone actually taking care of it. In the Summer of 2012, I sold my Futuro House to a gentleman from Pennsylvania who will be restoring it. Although I always wanted to do this project myself, I'm really happy that it will be getting done much sooner than I could have ever gotten to it.

Below are some pictures I took on 1/1/11.

Welcome home!

There is a strange gap in the lower section that doesn't seem to be a separation from settling.

The trees have really grown up right around the Futuro. The trees are actually touching it and are scarred from rubbing on it.

You can really see how the trees are scarred from rubbing on the Futuro.

This large opening was molded into the side of the Futuro opposite the entry door. This is where the original restaurant equipment was loaded inside. I'm not sure where the cover is for this opening. This will likely have to be fabricated.

All these trees will have to be cut down to remove the Futuro from its current location.

As if the exterior isn't bad enough, the interior is pretty awful. The Futuro shell consists of an outer shell of fiberglass reinforced plastic and in inner shell of thin fiberglass sandwiching a layer of foam insulation. Most of the interior fiberglass shell is missing and much of the foam insulation is exposed.

Here, you can see some "non-orginal seating" in the location of the original bathroom. The plumbing vent stack is still in place. You can see some wood on the wall/ceiling area that indicates the orignal positions of partition walls. Apparently, this is a "two bedroom" model - one mattress on the left and one mattress on the right. I try not to even think about what's been going on here for the last twenty-plus years.

This is a good shot of the exposed foam insulation. It's very odd because it looks like rust. When I first saw it, I thought it was rust which was confusing because I knew there was no metal.

This shot is looking through the stairway opening. You can see across to the larger opening and where the frame of the window is damaged. This will have to fabricated again.

Looking in through the larger secondary opening, you can see under the floor. There's quite a bit of room under there. There is a lot of duct work under there for a ventilation system.

Here is a close up of the seam in the roof. I've never seen this before, but this Futuro only has one longitudinal seam, unlike every other Futuro I've ever seen. So, instead of consisting of eight top sections and eight bottom sections (or possibly fewer, as I have seen on some others), this Futuro only separates into four parts. This will make transportation interesting.

Here is a close up of the inner fiberglass shell delaminating from the foam insulation.

This shot is straight down the utility hole in the center of the Futuro. You can see the plumbing along with some duct work.

This shot show a fairly good detail of the sub-structure under the rotting floor.

If there's a silver lining in all this, the stairs are in remarkably good shape.

Here's one of the four legs that support the enitre structure.

Here's a detail of an attachment point for one of the legs. You can see the tube is actually split. All new legs will have to be fabricated. Cha-ching!

Following are a few shots getting progressively farther away to show the overall conditions of the location. Although I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to own this Futuro, I wish I had know about it fifteen years ago before it had deteriorated so much.

Nice...

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