What does it take to move a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright from its original home in New Jersey to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas? The answer: 18 months, 100 people and two very large trucks. The Bachman-Wilson House, designed in 1954, was bought in 2013 by the museum from the couple who had lived in it for 25 years.
On 11 November, it is due to reopen in the grounds of Alice Walton’s private museum. Thousands of carefully photographed and numbered pieces were used to reconstruct the three-bedroom house. The concrete walls and floors were rebuilt using a formula from the now defunct original supplier.
Around ten visitors will be admitted at a time. “Each person who [touches parts of the house] gives it a little less of a life,” says Niki Stewart, the museum’s chief engagement officer.