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Edith Farnsworth House: Name change emphasizes Farnsworth’s role in creating an American masterpiece

2021-10-19T12:38:00-04:00

As part of the house’s 70th-anniversary celebration next month, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced that the iconic Farnsworth House will be renamed the Edith Farnsworth House in order to better recognize the cultural and architectural contributions of its namesake, Dr. Edith Farnsworth.

The name change coincides with the trust’s “Where Women Made History” campaign, which now recognizes Farnsworth for her rightful place as a doyenne of American high culture.

Edith Farnsworth (left) and Beth Dunlap, 1951. Image © William Dunlap

According to a press release: “Ahead of her time in the post-World War II era, Edith Farnsworth lived an independent life of cultural and intellectual exploration and discovery. For decades, her story, as well as her pivotal role in the creation of this landmark, has not received the prominence it deserves.”

Image © Edith Farnsworth Papers, The Newberry Library

Ever the bon vivant, Farnsworth’s eye for artistic talent lead her to Mies van ...

Midwest floods impact Chicago’s Willis Tower and Farnsworth House

2020-05-20T14:08:00-04:00

Two of Chicago's most treasured architectural landmarks have been impacted by recent torrential rains that have battered the Midwest.

The Chicago Tribune reports that flooding impacted the SOM-designed Willis Tower basement, which caused a building-wide power outage. The resulting blackout left the 1,729-foot-tall tower completely dark, producing an eerie sight on the otherwise brilliant Chicago skyline.

Have you seen the creepy pictures of Sears Tower sans lights? Flooding knocked out power to the building. Also, I like that people still call it the Sears Tower. Which reminds me, I need to stop at Hooks on the way home from work today. pic.twitter.com/phspRyfVGl
— Sean Copeland (@TheSeanCopeland) May 20, 2020

Similarly, rising waters from a river located nearby the Mies van der Rohe-designed Farnsworth House in the western suburbs threatened to overwhelm the glass-encased home, as well. The Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin reports, however, that the waters have alr...

Mies as Muse

2019-07-10T19:48:00-04:00

While the work of modern masters will always lurk in the shadows of contemporary design, few have been imitated or referenced as frequently as the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. His material palette and deceptively simple methods of spatial organization indirectly inspired subsequent generations of artists and architects to treat the architect's body of work as a blank canvas onto which they can individually project their own creative identities.

Almost Nothing, by Christian Bjone. Published by Park Books.

"Out of all the architects to use as a focus and collector of artist interests," author and architect Christian Bjone writes in his newest book, "Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is a lightning rod. His work, writings, teaching, students, and personal mythology lay waiting for a response from the worshipful, visually curious, obsessive and angry."

The title of Bjone's book, Almost Nothing, is a phrase often used to describe the products of Mies' labor: the nearly complete red...

Mies' Farnsworth House to be awash in gridded lasers for this year's Chicago Architecture Biennial

2019-06-18T13:55:00-04:00

In conjunction with the upcoming Chicago Architecture Biennial, Iker Gil and Luftwerk will present their collaborative light and sound installation at Mies van Der Rohe's Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. Titled 'Geometry of Light,' the installation will cast red lasers onto the elements of the building to emphasize its openness while tracing its underlying geometric principles. Gil and Luftwerk recently unveiled a preview of the installation:

Amazing turnout last night for our Chicagoland Art + Design Community preview of "Geometry of Light", the @_luftwerk and Iker Gil collaboration that will be co-presented by @MiesGlassHouse and @MASContext October 11-13, 2019. Tickets at https://t.co/VVVyQ92CrL #geometryoflight pic.twitter.com/mX3mjdp6Ol
— Farnsworth House (@MiesGlassHouse) June 15, 2019 Scenes from the @_luftwerk @MASContext Geometry of Light preview at the @MiesGlassHouse last weekend. Check out the real deal Oct. 11-13 pic.twitter.com/NOuxEwEGJR
— Zach Mortice (@zachmortic...

Three famous modernist houses set the stage in this video art exhibition

2018-06-29T17:57:00-04:00

At Pioneer Works, in Brooklyn, the show “Gerard & Kelly: Clockwork” — photographs, text, installations, and live and filmed dance — references the three small structures and the intertwined careers of their architects: the Schindler House in West Hollywood, Calif., by R. M. Schindler; Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Conn.; and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill.

Artists Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly's film Schindler/Glass uses three iconic modernist houses as the backdrop in which issues of gendered space and domestic intimacy are explored. The video piece is part of an ongoing series by the artists called “Modern Living". Shot on site at the Schindler House, the Glass House, and the Farnsworth House, performers interact with the complicated architectural histories in each structure.

Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal to star in a new movie about Mies van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth

2017-02-06T13:23:00-05:00

The story of Mies van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth—the namesake commissioner of the famous glass house—is rife with sex and scandal. According to the typical narrative, Farnsworth, a nephrologist of some acclaim, didn’t just want one of Mies’ buildings, but also the man himself. When things didn’t pan out that way, she took revenge by heading to the courts.

But, as a former Screen/Print revealed, that story isn’t just inaccurate—it’s laden with sexist assumptions. Namely, that a woman couldn’t simply be dissatisfied with an architectural “masterwork” because of its formal flaws. She had to be driven by “feminine” emotions.

Anyway, it’s still a good story. And now it’s heading to the silver screen. According to Showbiz 411, Jeff Bridges will be starring as the German architect and Maggie Gyllenhaal will play Farnsworth.

Two of a kind: photographer Robin Hill contemplates the Farnsworth House and Glass House simultaneously

2015-07-15T17:28:00-04:00

Naturally paired, but too quickly equated. Photographer Robin Hill takes on the iconic and somewhat contending Farnsworth House and Glass House in his photo series, "Side by Side: The Glass Houses of Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson". With eighteen magazine-ready spreads, Hill matches shots of each house as a “dyptych”, often aligned to show how one house’s element can be extended into the other, but with clear atmospheric differences. Other shots are paired by their similar perspectives, or proportional beauty – the hinge of the dyptychs serving as the axis of symmetry between the two houses.

The gaze in these photos isn’t critical – the goal doesn’t seem to be to declare a winner in the Glass House battle. Instead the pairings have a composed distance that seems genuinely concerned with illustrating the buildings’ co-evolutionary existence. The series takes a fresh look at these iconic, historical buildings to consider why they appear so similar in the first place, and then br...

View from the Farnsworth House may soon be a lot drier

2015-06-19T20:13:00-04:00

"The river was part of its immediate environment. To move it to higher ground where it never floods would be ridiculous. You would ask: 'Why is it on stilts?' It makes no sense to me."

All along, Mies van der Rohe's iconic design for the retreat of Dr. Edith Farnsworth was intended to withstand floodwaters, but in the past 19 years, the house has flooded three times, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. These incidents were partially blamed on rapid suburban development nearby, for bringing more water into the Fox River.

So as a protective measure, the house's owner, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is considering a few drastic alternatives for how to proceed – most notably moving the house entirely to another, higher spot on Farnsworth's 62-acre property. The other options include lifting the house on hydraulic stilts, or reorienting it on top of a "9-foot mound at its original site". An advisory committee, including Chicago architect and grandson of Mies, Dirk Lohan (quoted above), is discussing the options with the Trust today.

The Trust alone can't make the final call – Landmarks Illinois, a group of historic preservation advocates, ...

VIDEO: Luftwerk's INsite performance at the Farnsworth House

2014-12-02T14:24:00-05:00

INsite by Chicago-based Luftwerk put Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House in the public eye yet again this past October in Plano, Illinois. Spectators got to see the Miesian landmark transformed into a structure of light and sound through site-specific digital video projections directed by Liviu Pasare and original music compositions by Owen Clayton Condon.

Check out the performance in the video below.

Previously: INsite by Luftwerk turns Mies' Farnsworth House inside-out with light and sound

INsite by Luftwerk turns Mies' Farnsworth House inside-out with light and sound

2014-05-15T13:23:00-04:00

Whether you're a diehard Miesian fan or could care less about the modernist architecture canon, we've heard of ol' Farnsworth time and time again since its completion in 1951 in Plano, Illinois. But Chicago-based artists Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of Luftwerk want the public to see the historic Farnsworth House in a whole new light — literally — with their digital installation project called INsite.

INsite highlights the house's characteristic clean lines through site-specific digital video projections and original music compositions, thus rendering it into a new structure of light, sound, and space. In addition to recent preservation efforts to protect the Farnsworth from more floodwater damage in the future, INsite could help revive public interest in an eye-catching way that is suitable for these tech-friendly times.

Illuminating modern architecture landmarks is nothing new for Gallero and Bachmaier, who have collaborated with video designer and programmer Liviu Pasare and co...

Should it stay or should it go? Preservationists weigh options to protect Farnsworth house from flooding damage

2014-04-30T13:50:00-04:00

The Fox River has shown little respect for Mies' brilliant juxtaposition of the natural and the man-made. In the past 18 years, the river has inundated the [Farnsworth] house three times. [...] Confronted with the prospect of more flooding, the house's owner is carefully weighing how to preserve and protect the house, two goals that potentially conflict... Such are the choices in an era when disastrous "100-year floods" seem to occur every few years.

Fox River Flash Flooding Surrounds the Farnsworth House

2013-03-13T21:00:00-04:00

Above freezing temperatures and continued rainfall has left the Fox River that runs next to the Farnsworth House in a state of rising flood waters today, March 11, 2013. The house is fully surrounded by river water, but neither the lower deck nor the upper deck has yet to be breached.

Farnsworth Clean-Up

2008-10-06T12:56:44-04:00

The Farnsworth House, damaged by flood on September 14th, now has a blog to communicate the clean-up. They have also announced special tours of the damage to help finance the effort.

Farnsworth Flooded... again...

2008-09-15T12:11:37-04:00

As positive-platypus points out in the forum:

"As of mid-day Sunday, flood waters rose above the 5-foot risers on which the steel and glass home sits, leaving its interior covered in another two feet of water," said Whitney French, historic site director.