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Westcott gets furniture, with a catch

Barbara J. Perenic Cardboard furniture temporarily decorates Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House.

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer Updated 3:26 PM Friday, November 13, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Frank Lloyd Wright was all about organic architecture.

His Westcott House was in need of some furniture.

Bada bing — cardboard furniture.

For a couple of weeks, visitors to Wright’s Prairie-style gem will get to see the place with some actual furnishings as part of a student exhibit of corrugated creations.

And when the show is over, it’s all recyclable.

Bada boom.

“There are purists and there are people who’d like to have the house furnished,” said Marta Wojcik, curator of the East High Street house museum. “This is our challenge for years to come.”

Temporarily, the challenge has been met by a group of students from Clark, Greene and Montgomery counties enrolled in the new Dayton Regional STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) School.

Their work will be on display Saturday, Nov. 14, through Nov. 29.

The students designed full-sized, cardboard prototypes of furniture for Westcott, which has been noticeably bare since its 2005 restoration because, frankly, no one knows what the furnished interior of the house looked like.

“The final result might not be what you would’ve seen in Westcott House 100 years ago,” Wojcik said.

But the point was to have this unique landmark rub off on young minds.

“The final product is just the cream on the top,” she said. “It was the process that was most exciting. We wanted them to connect to the house in a relevant, personal way.”

The Westcott House Foundation chose about a half-dozen pieces for the exhibit.

“We all were blown away by the different aspects of creativity they came up with,” said Laurie McFarlin of the Beavercreek-based school.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio. com.