Mira Nakashima: Home Restoration

Designing the 21st Century Podcast

Mira Nakashima was my recnet guest in the last podcast episode of the season - Designing the 21st Century. The Nakashima Foundation for Peace maintains the architecture and furniture collection which American-Japanese woodworker and architect George Nakashima created and built in New Hope, Pennsylvania. It is one of the most personal and memorable places I have ever visited: a powerful representation of Nakashima’s personal and design vision and of his life story.

Now that the foundation has a special mission—to preserve the family home, a National Historic Landmark recognized for its innovative design and craftsmanship—I have invited Nakashima’s daughter Mira, now the creative director of the George Nakashima Woodworker, to learn about the legacy of her father, about the greatness of his design, and about the plan to restore the house. Nakashima built it in the 1940s, and it reflects his philosophy about integrating modernism with traditional Japanese principles, and his vision regarding woodworking and craftsmanship. Today, the Family House urgently needs help.

Thanks to grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Foundation has a comprehensive preservation plan that outlines the work needed to stabilize this important historical House.