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Lakeshore Public Media sponsors sustainability celebration for Earth Day

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — Lakeshore Public Media, along with Indiana Landmarks and Indiana Humanities, is a proud sponsor of House Painter Media’s Earth Day celebration, Toward Sustainability, hosted by Indiana Landmark and the Lubeznik Center. The event explores the impact of George Fred Keck’s House of Tomorrow on the discipline of sustainable home design and the future of the field.

Toward Sustainability is scheduled for Saturday, April 22, 2023, and is free and open to the public. The two-part event takes participants on a tour of the “House of Tomorrow” in Beverly Shores, IN, then to a panel discussion at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City, IN. Due to scheduling necessities, those who plan to attend are required to register for each portion of the celebration separately at housepaintermedia.com/sustainablehouses.

The two-part celebration kicks off with tours of the “House of Tomorrow” (HOT) at 2:30 p.m. CT. The tours will be done in groups of 20, entering at 15 minute intervals. Registration is required for the 15-minute tour with available time slots at 2:30, 2:45, 3:00, 3:15 p.m.

Following the rare interior tours of the 1933 World’s Fair exhibit house, attendees are encouraged to attend the day’s main event and join experts from various disciplines as for the discussion “Houses of Tomorrow: Sustainable Design Today” at the Lubeznik Center in Michigan City, from 4 to 6 p.m.. The panelists will give presentations and lead small breakout sessions exploring modern and prospective sustainable design practices with respect for the history and cultures of the area.

The Panelists include: Nancy Moldenhauer Michigan City Sustainability Commission & President, Save the Dunes; Todd Zeiger Director, Northern Regional Office at Indiana Landmarks; Nathan Kipnis Principal, Kipnis Architecture + Planning; Alicia Ponce Founder & Principal, AP Monarch; Dan Robinson Indiana Program Associate, Solar United Neighbors.

Indiana Landmarks in partnership with the Indiana Humanities provided a Historic Preservation Education Grant to assist in the development of a film about the history of the HOT, its influence in the field of solar design, and the structure’s future renovation.

“Jim Laukes, principal for the film project and someone we have worked with over the years to get b-roll at the House of Tomorrow, reached out and asked if we would like to participate,” Indiana Landmarks Northern Regional Office Director, Todd Zeiger said.

According to Zeiger, the goal of the event is to give people insight into the design of the home and how the glass was an important part. Even in its current condition, one can get an understanding of the design’s forward thinking; it’s a chance for people to see the building before restoration begins.

“People who attend will learn about how influential the HOT was in the area of solar design, for its time, and be able to see the influence of the HOT in Keck’s later work. That helps place it in context of importance not only architecturally — people were building bungalows at the time no glass walled houses — but also it place in what we call sustainable design today,” Zeiger said.

The Elmhurst Art Museum mounted an exhibit last year that traced the HOT’s impact on Keck’s interest in and designs of houses that take advantage of solar energy. It was the HOT construction window installation (error) that led to interior overheating in the summer and a warm space in the winter that lead Keck to design homes to harness that energy. This correlation resulted in the Earth Day/sustainability connection surrounding the event, Towards Sustainability.

According to Indiana Landmarks, in the depths of the Great Depression in 1933–34, the HOT at the Chicago World’s Fair offered millions a hopeful vision of a brighter, easier future. Chicago architect George Fred Keck designed the HOT to inspire fairgoers to want what they saw: a modern home with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, central air conditioning, an innovative open floor plan, the first General Electric dishwasher, an “iceless” refrigerator, an attached garage whose door opened at the push of a button, an attached hangar for the family airplane.

Lakeshore Public Media has been a public broadcasting entity based in Northwest Indiana for nearly 35 years. Their mission is to enrich the lives of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana residents through lifelong learning, the celebration of human diversity, and engagement in civic concerns through its Lakeshore PBS and Lakeshore Public Radio efforts.