Moving a Gehry, Again

John Hill

3. March 2015

Photos: Courtesy of University of St. Thomas · Minnesota

The University of St. Thomas · Minnesota has announced it will auction off the Frank Gehry-designed Winton Guest House in May, six years after the school relocated the building from its original site.

The forthcoming sale and move of the 1987 Gehry design follows from the sale of the university’s Daniel C. Gainey Conference Center in Owatonna (about 65 miles south of Minneapolis) to Meridian Behavioral Health Services. According to St. Thomas, "the university faces an August 2016 deadline to move the house from its 180-acre Owatonna site." The May 19 auction in Chicago is timed to follow an exhibition during Art Week in New York City, while it also gives the new owner enough time to start the move in the warm months before Minnesota's harsh winter hits.

The sale of the Winton house is being handled by Wright, an auction house that specializes in modern and contemporary design. Wright previously sold a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Rockford, Illinois, but if any residential design appears readily movable it's Gehry's guest house, which is made up of five distinct volumes.

The house was gifted to the university in 2007 with the provision that it be moved from its Lake Minnetonka site. A couple years later it was moved 110 miles to St. Thomas's land, where it was renovated and reopened as a space for Art History faculty and students. Upon its opening in 2011, Gehry exclaimed, "You did an incredible job. It is staggering to see it … I never had had houses of mine moved. I have had them torn down. It is a special treat to have them moved."