"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." — chicagotribune.com
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, holds partial ownership of the house by way of preservation easement, and has the power to approve or decline the Trust's decision. But due to the mega-status of the house, any solution will no doubt be contentious. Due to rising sea levels and climate change predictions, flooding concerns are much more dire today than they were when the house was first built over sixty years ago, and are often at odds with midcentury design practices. If the Trust decides to move the house, it could change the entire practice of architectural preservation.
2 Comments
Think with 50+ acres there should be a safe represenitive alternative siting to save the house which is more historical than the site….could consider a ghost structure in the original location similar to Robert Venturi's "Ghost Structure” of Benjamin Franklin's house in Philadelphia or a chain link “Ghost House” version as done by Philip Johnson.
Carrera I like that suggestion! And I agree that relocating it on the same site seems like a good solution - one that should only anger the most hard-core purists.
Years ago when this house flooded Chicagoan and former Archinecter evil platypus noted that massive amounts of development upstream of this site has caused the river to flood higher than it had when the house was built. Not knowing much about the geography of the location, I'd hesitate to blame this flooding on climate change, but rather on good old fashioned suburban sprawl. Either way, it's an example of the challenges of the anthropocene.
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