Saving the Past with Glass
We are one step closer to understanding how structural glass can be used to better preserve and interpret Francis Lightfoot Lee's Menokin! In 2007, a preliminary construction study on the glass house concept was completed. The research study shows that this project is within the realms of current glass technology and will offer the opportunity to explore a new role for glass in architectural conservation work.
The Menokin Foundation is faced with the challenge of protecting the ruin from further deterioration, while at the same time presenting the property in a manner that furthers the public's understanding of how the house was built, its original appearance, and the historic context in which it existed. Creating a safe, accessible working and learning environment at the ruin is also a challenge that needs to be addressed. The preliminary construction study was conducted to better understand the structural glass idea and how the Menokin Foundation will proceed with it.
An initial model of the concept shows a light armature carrying panels of structural glass that fit to the mass of the Menokin structure. The system provides some loading to the walls, but is modular enough so that the individual panels of glass can be removed when needed as the stone walls are rebuilt. It also functions as a skeleton for reintroducing conserved architectural elements. For example, as floor joists are set back into their pockets in interior walls, they could rest on the glass armature in the missing walls. This allows for sections of floor to go back into place and the for re-creation of missing rooms that visitors can enter. The fine interior woodwork, now in storage at the Visitors Center , can also be re-hung within the glass armature.
We project that the first phase of construction will be completing the glass “envelope” to reinstate four walls and a load-bearing roof. This will better protect the remaining fabric of Menokin. Major structural elements such as attic framing, girders, and posts will be conserved and put back in place as part of the glass envelope. Over the years, the Foundation can tackle filling in the interior and reinstalling the interior woodwork. The philosophy is to put back all original remaining pieces of the house of which 80 percent still exists and recreate any missing elements in glass.
Environmental conditioning will be one of the most challenging aspects of this project. Menokin never had electricity or plumbing and we do not want to introduce complicated mechanical systems and a costly HVAC system into the house. Ideally, the building's energy needs will be provided off-grid. The environmental conditions inside the house will need to be maintained at a temperature and humidity that does not harm the structure of the building and allows a degree of comfort for visitors. We have begun discussing a range of heating/cooling and humidification options, including buried air ducts running out into the cornfield, geo-thermal, solar dehumidification, photovoltaics, and even biodiesel power generation from crops grown in the surrounding fields.
Why pursue the structural glass concept?
The value of this idea is being able to “connect the dots” and preserve the extracted and remaining artifacts, creating the mass of the building true to form and shape but not in the same materials, and allowing the visitor to look through that creation as a visible building, in which the remaining elements are presented. While the technology necessary to create the glass structure at Menokin is used quite frequently on modern buildings, this technology needs to be transferred to managing a historic ruin where the first goal is not the reconstruction of the building.
Staying true to the Foundation's mission, vision and philosophy, the glass concept is the anchor for study of a number of fields. It can be seen as a “teaching hospital” for architects and conservators. Architects can see bones of the original structure through the glass house, making it easier to understand construction concepts through a study of component parts and details.
Architectural conservators will benefit not only from studying the 1769 building, but from experiments done in the new conservation lab, recently built on the property. A large scale archaeological survey of Menokin's 500 acres, which the Foundation is interested in pursuing in the future, will help us better understand Virginia 's plantation landscape chronology. Environmentalists will be free to study native flora and fauna on Menokin's property that is managed as part of the Rappahannock River National Wildlife Refuge.
Until the planning phase is over, the Foundation will not have a firm estimate for how much the total glass house project is going to cost or to what extent glass will be used. Whatever we undertake at Menokin—be it a glass structure, a traditional reconstruction, or simply maintaining what we have of the house—will take substantial funds and planning. And why would we go to all this trouble to preserve and interpret Menokin?
First and foremost, Menokin is a nationally significant patriotic site. Until it was acquired by the Foundation, Menokin was the only home of a Virginia signer of the Declaration of Independence that was not secured. Only Menokin, of the surviving homes of the signers, remained at risk. That risk is now removed, but we have a long way to go towards developing the site and gleaning all that this intriguing place has to offer. Secondly, the property provides an incomparable educational opportunity for students in the fields of architecture, archaeology, conservation and ecology. Menokin brings together the study of our environment—built and natural—into one very beautiful and historic place.
Summer 2008 Inform magazine article
Dec 2009 The House & Home magazine article
May 2010 " Glasscaster" podcast with engineer Tim Macfarlane
Jan 2011 Virginia Living magazine article
Three dimensional rendering of glass concept, August 2009. (Dewhurst Macfarlane Engineers & Future Realities)
Three dimensional rendering at dusk, August 2009. (Dewhurst Macfarlane Engineers & Future Realities). Visitors can see the "bones" of the original structure through the glass house, making it easier to understand construction concepts through a study of component parts and details.
Summer & Fall 2009: The Menokin Foundation undertakes the construction of an acrylic wall, supported by plywood fins, that protects the fragile east interior of Menokin. This project also allows visitors to understand how the glass walls will be structured. This is a temporary treatment to protecting the house. The final treatment will employ structural glass for the walls and fins.
Menokin, 1940, Historic American Building Survey photo