'Future' now outdated
Xanadu, 'home of the future,' falls to make way for the latest craze: condos.
Daphne Sashin | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted October 22, 2005
KISSIMMEE -- From West U.S. Highway 192, the strange cluster of white domes beckoned to Dean Dyer like a creature from the sea, an alien spaceship or an "evil bad-guy headquarters," he recalled.
On their honeymoon earlier this month, Dyer and his wife arrived at Xanadu, the defunct attraction once billed as the "home of the future," just in time to watch its demise.
"Here we thought we were going to come and take pictures of a weird place, and they were tearing it down," Dyer said this week from his home in Wilmington, Del. "We felt pretty lucky that we caught it before it was gone."
In a sign of the times, the longtime owners of Xanadu demolished it to build a "midrise" condominium building fronting Lake Cecile, said Realtor Sonny Buoncervello, a consultant to the owners who helped manage the attraction in the 1980s.
Xanadu, built in 1983, was conceived by architect Roy Mason to showcase how technology could one day transform the American household. It also demonstrated a novel construction technique: Modules of the house were made by spraying plastic foam over big balloons that were later deflated; that was cheaper and more energy-efficient than standard building methods of the day.
The 15-room house was cooled by tubes of chilled water running through the walls. It featured a range of high-tech features, including a closet that used ultraviolet light to dry-clean clothes and a sensory-deprivation bathtub that a person could use for 10 minutes and supposedly feel as if he or she had slept for four hours.
Xanadu invited comparisons to a cluster of massive toadstools or a UFO, but it lured thousands of tourists a day at its peak, Buoncervello said.
"They did tours that would begin at 10 in the morning until 10 at night, and it was amazing how many people we'd get," he said.
But the attraction lost its appeal as many of the Xanadu's space-age features hit the market. Using a computer to order groceries and pay bills electronically, or a faucet that turned on automatically, were no longer things of the future.
One of three Xanadu attractions in the nation, the home on U.S. 192 was the last to close, in 1996. It sat for years gathering mildew, and homeless people squatted inside, until Dyer watched it get bulldozed Oct. 7.
He swiped the "Exit" sign as a souvenir.
"It really was a neat thing, and now it's gone," Dyer lamented.
Some local officials reacted differently upon learning of the bulbous home's demise.
"Cool! Yes! I've been waiting for 15 years for them to tear this thing down. It was an eyesore," Osceola County Commissioner Atlee Mercer said when told the news on Friday. "You couldn't figure out whether that was a mound of snow, or someone's Play-Doh experiment that went sadly wrong, or an ice cream cone that melted."
1983: Xanadu is built on U.S. Highway 192 in Kissimmee. It is one of three "homes of the future." The others were in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and the Wisconsin Dells.
Early 1990s: Tennessee and Wisconsin homes close.
1996: Xanadu is closed to the public and put up for sale.
October 2005: Xanadu is demolished.
Designed by architect Roy Mason, the 6,240-square-foot house was created by inflating large balloons and spraying them with polyurethane foam. The idea was to inexpensively create an energy-efficient home to showcase technology. It cost $170,000 to build, plus the cost of electronic equipment.
SOURCES: Sentinel research, Wikipedia
Daphne Sashin can be reached at 407-931-5944 or dsashin@orlandosentinel.com.
Xanadu, 'home of the future,' falls to make way for the latest craze: condos.
Daphne Sashin | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted October 22, 2005
KISSIMMEE -- From West U.S. Highway 192, the strange cluster of white domes beckoned to Dean Dyer like a creature from the sea, an alien spaceship or an "evil bad-guy headquarters," he recalled.
On their honeymoon earlier this month, Dyer and his wife arrived at Xanadu, the defunct attraction once billed as the "home of the future," just in time to watch its demise.
"Here we thought we were going to come and take pictures of a weird place, and they were tearing it down," Dyer said this week from his home in Wilmington, Del. "We felt pretty lucky that we caught it before it was gone."
In a sign of the times, the longtime owners of Xanadu demolished it to build a "midrise" condominium building fronting Lake Cecile, said Realtor Sonny Buoncervello, a consultant to the owners who helped manage the attraction in the 1980s.
Xanadu, built in 1983, was conceived by architect Roy Mason to showcase how technology could one day transform the American household. It also demonstrated a novel construction technique: Modules of the house were made by spraying plastic foam over big balloons that were later deflated; that was cheaper and more energy-efficient than standard building methods of the day.
The 15-room house was cooled by tubes of chilled water running through the walls. It featured a range of high-tech features, including a closet that used ultraviolet light to dry-clean clothes and a sensory-deprivation bathtub that a person could use for 10 minutes and supposedly feel as if he or she had slept for four hours.
Xanadu invited comparisons to a cluster of massive toadstools or a UFO, but it lured thousands of tourists a day at its peak, Buoncervello said.
"They did tours that would begin at 10 in the morning until 10 at night, and it was amazing how many people we'd get," he said.
But the attraction lost its appeal as many of the Xanadu's space-age features hit the market. Using a computer to order groceries and pay bills electronically, or a faucet that turned on automatically, were no longer things of the future.
One of three Xanadu attractions in the nation, the home on U.S. 192 was the last to close, in 1996. It sat for years gathering mildew, and homeless people squatted inside, until Dyer watched it get bulldozed Oct. 7.
He swiped the "Exit" sign as a souvenir.
"It really was a neat thing, and now it's gone," Dyer lamented.
Some local officials reacted differently upon learning of the bulbous home's demise.
"Cool! Yes! I've been waiting for 15 years for them to tear this thing down. It was an eyesore," Osceola County Commissioner Atlee Mercer said when told the news on Friday. "You couldn't figure out whether that was a mound of snow, or someone's Play-Doh experiment that went sadly wrong, or an ice cream cone that melted."
1983: Xanadu is built on U.S. Highway 192 in Kissimmee. It is one of three "homes of the future." The others were in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and the Wisconsin Dells.
Early 1990s: Tennessee and Wisconsin homes close.
1996: Xanadu is closed to the public and put up for sale.
October 2005: Xanadu is demolished.
Designed by architect Roy Mason, the 6,240-square-foot house was created by inflating large balloons and spraying them with polyurethane foam. The idea was to inexpensively create an energy-efficient home to showcase technology. It cost $170,000 to build, plus the cost of electronic equipment.
SOURCES: Sentinel research, Wikipedia
Daphne Sashin can be reached at 407-931-5944 or dsashin@orlandosentinel.com.
