The St. Thomas Board of Trustees decided to auction off St. Thomas’ most expensive piece of art – the Winton Guest House. The board reached the decision to sell the Frank Gehry original, located on the Gainey Conference Center property, after no other option seemed plausible.

Since its completion in 1987, the house has received global recognition, architecture and art awards and has been one of the most valuable assets of the art history department, according to Victoria Young, chair of the department. Young, an architecture historian, has been involved with the Winton Guest House since Mike and Penny Winton donated it to St. Thomas in 2007 and said she is disappointed to see it go.

“To be able to teach with an object like this by an architect that my students are reading about in the textbooks and online is an incredible opportunity … you really have to experience architecture first hand,” Young said. “This was such a game changer.”

St. Thomas has moved the house before, but after the sale of the Gainey Conference Center property last year, the university agreed to remove it from the property by August 2016.

Young consulted with the Board of Trustees and said several options were examined before the decision was made to auction the property. One option was to move the house again, this time placing it somewhere on campus or moving it into storage. After determining that the move would cost nearly $1 million, this option was scrapped. Additionally, moving the house onto campus does not fit into the campus master plan outlined in the strategic plan.

The board also considered offering the house to cultural institutions in the state, but the option still required an immense expense to move the house. Unable to escape the high cost of moving it, the board settled on selling the property as art.

“My least favorite (option), but the one that the board decided to go with,” Young said. “I kind of knew they would. Even though I’m really dedicated to the mission of this house, I’m a realist, and that’s what they decided.”

Still, Young said she is glad to see such a valuable piece being sold as art rather than real estate.

Junior Lauren Van Beek visited the house during a Campus Ministry retreat and said she is sad to see it auctioned off.

“It’s kind of sad because it was a cool piece of art,” Van Beek said. “The architecture was very cool and unique.”

Van Beek said she understands the decision to sell, considering the lack of accessibility because of the house’s distance from campus.

“I don’t think as many students get to use their guest house very much,” Van Beek said. “So if it wasn’t being used for the students, I guess on one hand it kind of makes sense that they would sell it.”

Young agreed the distance from campus may have played into the house’s fate.

“Any time an educational opportunity is 100 miles away, it makes it very challenging to keep it an educational opportunity,” Young said. “That was the space they decided to put it in, so that’s what we had to work with.”

Richard Wright, the auctioneer Young chose, is still determining the value of the Winton Guest House, which is currently valued between $1 million to $1.5 million. The auction will begin May 19 in Chicago, and the new buyer will be in charge of moving the house.

Young said she hopes the next owner will recognize the educational value of the structure and will keep it open to the public.

“I just want the buyer to be somebody who understands the legacy of (Gehry) and that we’ve been trying to protect it,” Young said. “I know I can’t control who that is, but my dream buyer is somebody who buys it for a large entity and opens it to the public. I just don’t want to see it demolished.”

Simeon Lancaster can be reached at lanc4637@stthomas.edu.