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. — miesglasshouse.wordpress.com
8 Comments
It happened before and it'll happen again.
True: http://archinect.com/news/article/79921/farnsworth-flooded-again
They even blogged the cleanup last time: http://archinect.com/news/article/80993/farnsworth-clean-up
When you approach the house there's a 10+ foot drop, then an expanse of grass of about a couple hundred feet, and the river is right behind it. It's pretty obvious that it sits right in a floodplain. I believe it is up on stilts to withstand 10 year flooding, but if you didn't have that data, the adjacent land forms tell you that this wasn't high enough.
(orhan - that picture looks like it was taken on top of the embankment)
I'm wondering who pushed siting the building where it is - the client or mies?
While I usually agree that "less is more," Dr. Farnsworth's house is a case where "less is a bore," and I forgot which architect coined the latter.
obs you couldn't be more wrong about the middle between the former and the latter
and the latter was bob venturi
We studied this house. I didn't like it. I like other Mies work though. I believe one of his disciples did Lake Point Tower in Chicago, which is beautifully done AND sited. I liked Johnson's glass house in New Caanan CT better.
I thought that was Venturi, but wasn't sure.
I don't believe Mies would ever let a Client tell him what to do. In fact if they tried, he would most likely stuff out his Cuban cigar on their forehead.
I think evilplatypus - whose presence here I miss - once noted that the 100 year flood level that Mies used to site the building has been radically changed due to the massive suburban development that has happened upstream in the intervening 60 years.
I think the house should be moved.
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