The Farnsworth House for good reason is concidered the culmination of Mies Van Der Rohe's pavilion exploration and residential refinement. Any architecture students trip to Chicagoland usually includes his Lake Shore Drive apartments, Federal Center and a trip out to Plano to see the Farnsworth house.
But often forgotten is Mies' Mc Cormick house in nearby Elmhurst. This remarkable little house was according to some a mock up of a curtain wall study, or as the Elmhurst Art museum says, a slice of the famed 860-880 LSD. The story is a developer wanted to build modernist worker class housing units and wanted a unit from 860-880 as the basis. He built this house as a prototype. The intended development would have been in Melrose Park but was never built.
There are only 3 known Mies designed houses in America, the other in Conn. Next time your architouring in Chicagoland, stop by Elmhurst, just a couple stops on the Metra West from Oak Park and see the Mc Cormick house. Its been moved from its original site down the block to a park where it serves as an art museum. The town is concidering a restoration as well.
yeah, and i know you love lp, but designwise it isn't as significant as other mies projects as it essentially borrows from the ideas explored in the earlier work. apparently mies' direct involvement was relatively low, especially compared to projects such as the farnsworth house. his designers had a basic model to go off of by the time they got to lafayette park and his ideas were long since established, thus lafayette park isn't always regarded as a hugely significant mies project. i think it's success is more greatly measured in the visionary urban planning by hilbersiemer and the developer herbert greenwald, than it's miesian architecture. there are a lot of buildings in lafayette park that aren't of a miesian spirit that contribute just as much to lafayette park as an urban success. sure the buildings look the same, but they weren't as ground breaking at the time.
i have to say the farnsworth house is a bit more elegant. the larger steel module allows more of a visual breakdown of the building envelope, and is better proportioned. it is more successful as an open pavilion and seems to float in the landscape more than sitting dumbly on the ground. my guess would be the steel details pop out more successfully with a frame that is less dense - less is more. i don't know if those are the finishes originally specked at the mccormick house, but they aren't as elegant. still a great house though.
I always thought of Layafette Park as a collection of highrises.
Hmmm, the history books mention 3 private residences. Any Mies scholars can confirm?
Interestingly the firm of DeStefano Partners used the house in a museum campus - but I cant figure out why they put its back to the park - they hid the entrance and did'nt respect the intended wooded setting - but without having been there it could have been budget or comunity people getting into the design. Anyways - its being concidered to do a full restoration. I'd hope they move it once again to be more stand alone as intended.
i believe there are two or three mies highrises there, a third or forth not of miesian origins. there is a large collection of "garden apartments" and townhouses, which are really nice now that the foliage has filled in over the years, but most of the buildings are low-rise. not too sure if there are more actual low-rise dwelling units, however. jfid might be able to let us in on who designed the rest of the buildings; a few of them are pretty hideous and i'm assuming mies didn't design them, though he may have.
Of course Farnsworth is more elegant. This isnt supposed to be about Farnsworth vs. McCormick vs. Layaffet Park. It was intended to be a discussion on the Mc Cormick house and what direction it was heading in. Farnsworth was not a practicle solution for anything other than trophy property whereas the Mc Cormick was trying to do something else but what? Its never discussed. Its like the lobotomized Kenedy sister no one talks about.
i live in one of the lafayette park townhouses. bossman's right. there are four bars of mies-designed one story courthouses and 16 bars of two story townhouses. in addition there are three mies designed apartment towers. hilberheimer's master plan also included two additional towers for a total of five. one was designed by gunnar birkirts. the other was just a cheap anonymous apartment tower. additionally on the other side of the park there are a number of "mies rip-offs" that were also part of hilbersheimer's plan. they are all one story courthouses. i'm not sure of the architect of those units.
i'll stop talking about lp and let you get back to mckormick.
Well are you trying to have a discussion speculating what to do with it next or what Mies was trying to do at McCormick? It says in the second paragraph of your post and in the link what they were trying to do. It is a slice of one of the Lake Shore drive towers conceived as a town house. The comparison with Lafayette Park and Farnsworth are inevitable, as it is (currently) a pavilion in a garden that is also a prototype for townhouses. I cannot say I know of what it meant on it's original site at prospect. Analysis by comparison is a relevant method or am I missing something?
I think all three Bossman. I tried to give Farnsworth credo right off the bat to discourage a farnsworth vs. McCormick House debate. I wasnt even thinking a Layafette Park townhouse would come up - although now I know more about Layafette Park. But this house seems a bit more refined in it's detailing than layaffette Park - maybe he was clinging to a certain penchant to elegance or a search for lightness he achieved at Farnsworth by lifting it above flood level.
Bossman show us some pics of the Mies townhomes at Layafette Park. Id like to see if there was an evolution from 1951 - 1960 and if McCormick house fits in - that would make for interesting comparitive analysis, no?
Mostly, I was hoping others might know more about this quietly overlooked building.
the townhouses and courthouses at lafayette park do not have the high end finishes that mies's detached single family houses have. for example instead of travertine lafayette park has asbestos tile flooring and solid oak stair treads. the details though are very similar from project to project. when i visited crown hall i was surprised at the similarity and wonder if mies didn't use the same details on all his projects regardless of type. for instance the handrail detail is exactly the same except he used a heavier guage steel at crown.
the wide flange steel on the exterior of the lafayette park townhouses is actually structural like it is at farnsworth, unlike seagram or any other of his towers, and it is welded to a channel at the edge of the slab. i have a copy of the original cds for lafayette park. lp is actually the largest collection of mies buildings in the world (take that iit!).
mccormick looks like it has structural steel at the perimeter as well. personally i've never liked the steel on mccormick. it looks too fat and chunky compared to farnsworth or even lafayette park. the proportions aren't as refined.
I believe this going to be on accross all PBS stations tonight
Farnsworth documentary on WTTW Thursday
September 10, 2007
By CHRISTINE S. MOYER STAFF WRITER
PLANO -- The iconic, glass-walled Farnsworth House, tucked between trees and the Fox River in Plano, will soon be explored from the family rooms of homes across the country.
On Thursday, a 30-minute documentary on the modernist structure -- Saved from the Wrecking Ball -- will air on WTTW TV at 8 p.m.
This is the first film on the Farnsworth House to be broadcast in the United States, according to Whitney French, the home's historic site director.
The documentary will usher viewers through the house's history, from construction and intrigue of the building, to the multiple owners and the ongoing efforts to preserve it.
Its title references the 2003 auction when a group of philanthropists managed to secure $7.5 million to purchase the building on behalf of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and save it from the rumored intent of a bidder to relocate it to Pennsylvania.
Laurie DiBerardino, public relations director for the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, believes the documentary will increase exposure of the structure nationally and locally.
"There are people in the Fox Valley who I speak with who don't even know it's here. Even in our own back yard there are people who don't know it exists," DiBerardino said.
Designed in 1951 by German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Farnsworth House -- enveloped in glass and framed in steel and travertine marble -- is considered one of the most beautiful modernist homes in the world.
The other Mies House
The Farnsworth House for good reason is concidered the culmination of Mies Van Der Rohe's pavilion exploration and residential refinement. Any architecture students trip to Chicagoland usually includes his Lake Shore Drive apartments, Federal Center and a trip out to Plano to see the Farnsworth house.
But often forgotten is Mies' Mc Cormick house in nearby Elmhurst. This remarkable little house was according to some a mock up of a curtain wall study, or as the Elmhurst Art museum says, a slice of the famed 860-880 LSD. The story is a developer wanted to build modernist worker class housing units and wanted a unit from 860-880 as the basis. He built this house as a prototype. The intended development would have been in Melrose Park but was never built.
There are only 3 known Mies designed houses in America, the other in Conn. Next time your architouring in Chicagoland, stop by Elmhurst, just a couple stops on the Metra West from Oak Park and see the Mc Cormick house. Its been moved from its original site down the block to a park where it serves as an art museum. The town is concidering a restoration as well.
Moving Mies
McCormick House
YOU ARE NOT THE NEXT MIES OR RENZO!!!
3 mies houses in america, not including the 200+ others at lafayette park in detroit.
yeah, and i know you love lp, but designwise it isn't as significant as other mies projects as it essentially borrows from the ideas explored in the earlier work. apparently mies' direct involvement was relatively low, especially compared to projects such as the farnsworth house. his designers had a basic model to go off of by the time they got to lafayette park and his ideas were long since established, thus lafayette park isn't always regarded as a hugely significant mies project. i think it's success is more greatly measured in the visionary urban planning by hilbersiemer and the developer herbert greenwald, than it's miesian architecture. there are a lot of buildings in lafayette park that aren't of a miesian spirit that contribute just as much to lafayette park as an urban success. sure the buildings look the same, but they weren't as ground breaking at the time.
if you want off the beaten path mies, even though it was never built, check out the 50x50 house
Whats interesting about the Mc Cormick house to me is that it was designed at the same time as Farnsworth - sort of a sister project.
Im not sure why its rarely discussed in books on Mies. Was it because it was a prototype? Not fully finished?
doesn't the farnsworth sit a couple feet off the ground on piloti?
jafid - He did only 3 private single family residences
yes - and its welded steel - this one looks more segmented
yeah but a lot of the work at lafayette is single and two-story townhouses. not single family, but still privately owned and not high rise.
For reference:
i have to say the farnsworth house is a bit more elegant. the larger steel module allows more of a visual breakdown of the building envelope, and is better proportioned. it is more successful as an open pavilion and seems to float in the landscape more than sitting dumbly on the ground. my guess would be the steel details pop out more successfully with a frame that is less dense - less is more. i don't know if those are the finishes originally specked at the mccormick house, but they aren't as elegant. still a great house though.
sorry i didn't realize how huge those images were
I always thought of Layafette Park as a collection of highrises.
Hmmm, the history books mention 3 private residences. Any Mies scholars can confirm?
Interestingly the firm of DeStefano Partners used the house in a museum campus - but I cant figure out why they put its back to the park - they hid the entrance and did'nt respect the intended wooded setting - but without having been there it could have been budget or comunity people getting into the design. Anyways - its being concidered to do a full restoration. I'd hope they move it once again to be more stand alone as intended.
i believe there are two or three mies highrises there, a third or forth not of miesian origins. there is a large collection of "garden apartments" and townhouses, which are really nice now that the foliage has filled in over the years, but most of the buildings are low-rise. not too sure if there are more actual low-rise dwelling units, however. jfid might be able to let us in on who designed the rest of the buildings; a few of them are pretty hideous and i'm assuming mies didn't design them, though he may have.
Of course Farnsworth is more elegant. This isnt supposed to be about Farnsworth vs. McCormick vs. Layaffet Park. It was intended to be a discussion on the Mc Cormick house and what direction it was heading in. Farnsworth was not a practicle solution for anything other than trophy property whereas the Mc Cormick was trying to do something else but what? Its never discussed. Its like the lobotomized Kenedy sister no one talks about.
i live in one of the lafayette park townhouses. bossman's right. there are four bars of mies-designed one story courthouses and 16 bars of two story townhouses. in addition there are three mies designed apartment towers. hilberheimer's master plan also included two additional towers for a total of five. one was designed by gunnar birkirts. the other was just a cheap anonymous apartment tower. additionally on the other side of the park there are a number of "mies rip-offs" that were also part of hilbersheimer's plan. they are all one story courthouses. i'm not sure of the architect of those units.
i'll stop talking about lp and let you get back to mckormick.
Well are you trying to have a discussion speculating what to do with it next or what Mies was trying to do at McCormick? It says in the second paragraph of your post and in the link what they were trying to do. It is a slice of one of the Lake Shore drive towers conceived as a town house. The comparison with Lafayette Park and Farnsworth are inevitable, as it is (currently) a pavilion in a garden that is also a prototype for townhouses. I cannot say I know of what it meant on it's original site at prospect. Analysis by comparison is a relevant method or am I missing something?
I think all three Bossman. I tried to give Farnsworth credo right off the bat to discourage a farnsworth vs. McCormick House debate. I wasnt even thinking a Layafette Park townhouse would come up - although now I know more about Layafette Park. But this house seems a bit more refined in it's detailing than layaffette Park - maybe he was clinging to a certain penchant to elegance or a search for lightness he achieved at Farnsworth by lifting it above flood level.
Bossman show us some pics of the Mies townhomes at Layafette Park. Id like to see if there was an evolution from 1951 - 1960 and if McCormick house fits in - that would make for interesting comparitive analysis, no?
Mostly, I was hoping others might know more about this quietly overlooked building.
the townhouses and courthouses at lafayette park do not have the high end finishes that mies's detached single family houses have. for example instead of travertine lafayette park has asbestos tile flooring and solid oak stair treads. the details though are very similar from project to project. when i visited crown hall i was surprised at the similarity and wonder if mies didn't use the same details on all his projects regardless of type. for instance the handrail detail is exactly the same except he used a heavier guage steel at crown.
who's movin!?
the tube steel welded column prominently projecting from the slab edges is the first thing that comes to mind
did mies really design the townhomes? And i did think his office had a pattern book for details.
So where is his connecticut house?
the wide flange steel on the exterior of the lafayette park townhouses is actually structural like it is at farnsworth, unlike seagram or any other of his towers, and it is welded to a channel at the edge of the slab. i have a copy of the original cds for lafayette park. lp is actually the largest collection of mies buildings in the world (take that iit!).
mccormick looks like it has structural steel at the perimeter as well. personally i've never liked the steel on mccormick. it looks too fat and chunky compared to farnsworth or even lafayette park. the proportions aren't as refined.
i'm curious how the translation of steel details changes from lake shore drive to mccormick. it would be interesting to see a plan of mccormick
============
http://detroit.craigslist.org/rfs/404970243.html
who's movin!?
============
http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/Miscellaneous/ltmi_036.wav
no mies nutmeger...hummm you folks going to make me look....damn!
humm dinger....bring your cigars.....!http://www.sah.org/sitemedia/mies.pdf
I believe this going to be on accross all PBS stations tonight
Farnsworth documentary on WTTW Thursday
September 10, 2007
By CHRISTINE S. MOYER STAFF WRITER
PLANO -- The iconic, glass-walled Farnsworth House, tucked between trees and the Fox River in Plano, will soon be explored from the family rooms of homes across the country.
On Thursday, a 30-minute documentary on the modernist structure -- Saved from the Wrecking Ball -- will air on WTTW TV at 8 p.m.
This is the first film on the Farnsworth House to be broadcast in the United States, according to Whitney French, the home's historic site director.
The documentary will usher viewers through the house's history, from construction and intrigue of the building, to the multiple owners and the ongoing efforts to preserve it.
Its title references the 2003 auction when a group of philanthropists managed to secure $7.5 million to purchase the building on behalf of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and save it from the rumored intent of a bidder to relocate it to Pennsylvania.
Laurie DiBerardino, public relations director for the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, believes the documentary will increase exposure of the structure nationally and locally.
"There are people in the Fox Valley who I speak with who don't even know it's here. Even in our own back yard there are people who don't know it exists," DiBerardino said.
Designed in 1951 by German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Farnsworth House -- enveloped in glass and framed in steel and travertine marble -- is considered one of the most beautiful modernist homes in the world.
For more information on the Farnsworth House, visit www.farnsworthhouse.org
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