This architectural preservation project in the U.S. state of Virginia takes “radical transparency” quite literally, encasing a damaged but historically important building in glass. The Menokin Glass House Project aims to rescue the home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, without attempting to make it look as it did when it was first built nearly 250 years ago.

“If you were to reconstruct the house, you’d cover up some of the most interesting parts,” says architectural conservator Matt Webster, a Menokin Foundation Advisory Council Member. “With glass, we can actually see how an 18th-century building comes together.”
The foundation sees this approach as “revolutionary,” connecting the past to the future in “relevant, daring ways.” The Neo-Palladian home, which stands on a 500-acre property, is one of the best-documented 18th-century houses in America. The conservationists had an original presentation drawing dating to 1769, an extensive Historic American Building Survey from 1940 including photography and 20 sheets of drawings, and a number of research reports and historic images to go off while completing the project.
About 80 percent of the mansion’s original materials have survived, including its sandstone exterior and 1,000-plus pieces of intact interior woodwork, but it did start to deteriorate a bit during the 20th century when it fell into a period of neglect....