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{{short description|Historic house in Illinois, United States}}
{{About|the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe house in Plano, Illinois}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| mapframe = yes
| mapframe-marker = building
| coordinates = {{coord|41|38|5.96|N|88|32|8.6|W|display=inline,title}}▼
| mapframe-zoom = 12
| mapframe-caption = Interactive map showing Farnsworth House’s location
| built = 1945-1951<ref name=house>[http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/history.htm History] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224063735/http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/history.htm |date=February 24, 2007}}, Farnsworth House. Retrieved 10 February 2007</ref>▼
| architect=[[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]]▼
| area = {{convert|206|sqm|sqft}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/farnsworth-house/|title = ✅ Farnsworth House - Data, Photos & Plans}}</ref>
| architecture = [[International style (architecture)|International Style]], [[Modernist architecture|Modernist]]<ref name=prop>Farnsworth House, [http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/hargis Property Information Report] HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved 10 February 2007.</ref>▼
▲
| designated_nrhp_type= February 17, 2006<ref name="nhlsum" />▼
▲
| visitation_num =▼
| visitation_year =▼
| mpsub =▼
| refnum = 04000867<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
}}
The '''Edith Farnsworth House''',
Mies created a 1,500-square-foot (140 m<sup>2</sup>) structure that is widely recognized as an
In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the Farnsworth House was selected as one of the Illinois 200
==History==
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was retained by
Farnsworth had purchased the wooded, nine-acre riverfront property from the publisher of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', [[Robert R. McCormick]]. Mies developed the design in time for it to be included in an exhibition on his work at MoMA, the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York in 1947.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beam|first=Alex|title=Broken Glass: Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight over a Modernist Masterpiece|publisher=Random House|year=2020|isbn=978-0-399-59271-3|location=New York|pages=69–72}}</ref> After completion of design, the project was placed on hold awaiting an inheritance from an ailing aunt of Farnsworth. Mies was to act as the general contractor as well as architect. Work began in 1950 and substantially, was completed in 1951. The commission was an ideal one for any architect, but was marred by a very publicized dispute between Farnsworth and Mies that began near the end of construction. The total cost of the house was $74,000 in 1951 ($734,635 in 2020 dollars). A [[cost overrun]] of $15,600 over the initially approved construction budget of $58,400, was due to escalating material prices resulting from inflationary commodities speculation (in anticipation of demand arising from the mobilization for the [[Korean War]]). Near the completion of construction, Mies filed a lawsuit for non-payment of $28,173 in construction costs. The owner then filed a counter suit for damages due to alleged [[malpractice]]. Mies' attorneys proved that Farnsworth had approved the plans and budget increases, and the court ordered the owner to pay her bills. Farnsworth's malpractice accusations were dismissed as unsubstantiated.<ref>Beam (2020), 184–244.</ref> It was a bitter and hollow victory for Mies, considering the painful publicity that followed.▼
▲Farnsworth had purchased the wooded, nine-acre riverfront property from the publisher of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', [[Robert R. McCormick]]. Mies developed the design in time for it to be included in an exhibition on his work at
Writing about the conflict in 1998, author Alice T. Friedman asserted that "[t]here is no evidence to suggest that [Farnsworth] sought to have her behavior challenged by the 'inner logic' of Mies's unyielding architectural vision; on the contrary, she seems to have had a clear idea about how she wanted to live and she expected the architect to respect her views... [S]he soon discovered that what Mies wanted, and what he had thought he had found in her, was a patron who would put her budget and her needs aside in favor of his own goals and dreams as an architect."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Friedman|first1=Alice T.|title=Women and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Architectural History|url=https://archive.org/details/womenmakingofmod0000frie|url-access=registration|date=1998|publisher=Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenmakingofmod0000frie/page/128 128]|isbn=9780810939899}}</ref>
==Encroachment and sale==
In 1968, the local highway department [[eminent domain|condemned]] a {{convert|2|acre|ha|adj=on}} portion of the property adjoining the house for construction of a raised highway bridge over the [[Fox River (Illinois River tributary)|Fox River]], encroaching upon the original setting of the design. Farnsworth sued to stop the project, but lost the court case. She sold the house in 1972, retiring to her villa in Italy.
In 1972, the Edith Farnsworth House was purchased by British property magnate, art collector, and architectural aficionado [[Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo|Peter Palumbo]].<ref name="nrhp">[http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/PDFs/163767.pdf Farnsworth House] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109020803/http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/PDFs/163767.pdf |date=January 9, 2016 }}, ([[PDF]]), National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, HAARGIS Database [http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/hargis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716083823/http://gis.hpa.state.il.us/hargis |date=July 16, 2006 }}, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Retrieved 10 February 2007.</ref> He removed the bronze screen enclosure of the porch, added air conditioning, electric heat, extensive landscaping, and his art collections to the grounds, including sculptures by [[Andy Goldsworthy]], [[Anthony Caro]], and [[Richard Serra]]. At the time, the interior was furnished with furniture Mies designed in the 1930s, but produced more recently by [[Knoll (company)|Knoll]], as well as designs by Mies' grandson, [[Dirk Lohan]], a Chicago architect Palumbo commissioned specifically for the house.<ref>Carol Vogel (October 4, 2003), [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/04/arts/celebrated-mies-house-up-for-auction.html Celebrated Mies House Up for Auction] ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref>
In 2001, Palumbo struck a deal with the state of Illinois, which agreed to buy the house for $7 million and open it full-time to the public, but state officials withdrew from the deal in early 2003, saying $7 million was too much to spend at a time of financial crisis.<ref name="Big House on the Prairie">Carol Vogel (October 17, 2003), [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/17/arts/inside-art.html Big House on the Prairie] ''The New York Times''.</ref>
After owning the property for 31 years, Palumbo removed the art and put the property up for sale with [[Sotheby's]] in 2003,<ref name="Big House on the Prairie"/> raising serious concerns about the future of the building.<ref name=NPR>{{cite web
|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1545312 |first=Edward |last=Lifson |author-link=Edward Lifson |title=Farnsworth House, Modernist Icon, For Sale |date= December 12, 2003 |publisher=[[NPR]]}}</ref> Preservationists and contributors from around the world, including the Friends of the Farnsworth House, began a concerted preservation and fund-raising effort to keep the house on its original site. With this financial support, the [[National Trust for Historic Preservation]] and [[Landmarks Illinois]] were able to purchase the house in December 2003 for a reported $7.5 million. Now operated as a house museum, the Farnsworth House is open to the public, with tours conducted by the National Trust.<ref name=NationalTrust>{{cite web
|url = http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/about_us.htm
|title = "About Us", www.farnsworthhouse.org
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The essential characteristics of the house are immediately apparent. The extensive use of clear floor-to-ceiling [[glass]] opens the interior to its natural surroundings to an extreme degree. Two distinctly expressed horizontal slabs, which form the roof and the floor, sandwich an open space for living. The slab edges are defined by exposed [[steel]] structural members painted pure white. The house is elevated {{convert|5|ft|3|in|m}} above a flood plain by eight wide flange steel columns which are attached to the sides of the floor and ceiling slabs. The slab ends extend beyond the column supports, creating cantilevers. A third floating slab, an attached [[Terrace (building)|terrace]], acts as a transition between the living area and the ground. The house is accessed by two sets of wide steps connecting ground to terrace and then to porch.
Mies found the large open exhibit halls of the turn of the century to be very much in character with his sense of the industrial era. Here he applied the concept of an unobstructed space that is flexible for use by people. The interior appears to be a single open room, its space ebbing and flowing around two wood blocks; one a wardrobe cabinet and the other containing a kitchen, toilet, and [[fireplace]] block (the "core"). The larger fireplace-kitchen core seems to be a separate house nesting within the larger glass house. The building is essentially one large room filled with freestanding elements that provide subtle
Mies applied this space concept, with variations, to his later buildings, most notably at [[S. R. Crown Hall|Crown Hall]], his [[Illinois Institute of Technology]] campus masterpiece. The notion of a single room that can be freely used or zoned in any way, with flexibility to accommodate changing uses, free of interior supports, enclosed in glass and supported by a minimum of structural framing located at the exterior, is the architectural ideal that defines Mies' American career. The Farnsworth House is significant as his first complete realization of this ideal, a prototype for his vision of what modern architecture in an era of technology should be.
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His answer to the issue is to accept the need for an orderly framework as necessary for existence, while making space for the freedom needed by the individual human spirit to flourish. He created buildings with free and open space within a minimal framework, using expressed structural columns. He did not believe in the use of architecture for social engineering of human behavior, as many other modernists did, but his architecture does represent ideals and aspirations. His mature design work is a physical expression of his understanding of the modern epoch. He provides the occupants of his buildings with flexible and unobstructed space in which to fulfill themselves as individuals, despite their anonymous condition in the modern industrial culture. The materials of his buildings, industrial manufactured products such as mill-formed steel and [[plate glass]], certainly represent the character of the modern era, but he counterbalances these with traditional luxuries such as Roman travertine and exotic wood veneers as valid parts of modern life. Mies accepted the problems of industrial society as facts to be dealt with, and offered his idealized vision of how technology may be made beautiful and support the individual as well. He suggests that the downsides of technology decried by late nineteenth century critics such as [[John Ruskin]], can be solved with human creativity, and shows us how in the architecture of this house.
Reconnecting the individual with nature is one of the great challenges of an urbanized society. The {{convert|60|acre|ha|adj=on}} rural site offered Mies an opportunity to bring the human relationship to [[nature]] into the forefront. Here he highlights the individual's connection to nature through the medium of a synthetic shelter. Mies said: "We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and the human being to a higher unity
Mies conceived the building as an indoor-outdoor architectural shelter simultaneously independent of and intertwined with the domain of nature. Mies did not build on the flood-free upland portions of the site, choosing instead to tempt the dangerous forces of nature by building directly on the [[flood plain]] near the edge of the river. Philip Johnson referred to this type of experience of nature as "safe danger". The enclosed space and
The house has a distinctly independent personality, yet also evokes strong feelings of a connection to the land. The levels of the platforms restate the multiple levels of the site, in a kind of poetic architectural rhyme, not unlike the horizontal balconies and rocks do at Wright's [[Fallingwater]].
The house was anchored to the site in the cooling shadow of a large and majestic [[Acer nigrum|black maple
==Integration with nature==
[[File:FarnsworthHouse-Mies-2.jpg|thumb|View from the park (2009)]]
=== Natural setting ===
The
▲As Mies stated on his achievement, "If you view nature through the glass walls of the Farnsworth House, it gains a more profound significance than if viewed from the outside. That way more is said about nature—it becomes part of a larger whole." Farnsworth House was created to display nature in a simple and pure form.<ref>Blaser, Werner. Mies van der Rohe : Farnsworth House : weekend house = wochenendhaus / Werner Blaser ; [translation into English, Katja Steiner, Bruce Almberg, Ehingen]. Basel ; Boston : Birkhäuser-Publishers for Architecture, c1999., 1999. NUCAT, EBSCOhost (accessed March 30, 2012).</ref><ref>"Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Farnsworth House, Illinois, USA, 1946-1951." A & U: Architecture & Urbanism no. 1 (January 2003): 126-135. Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, EBSCOhost (accessed March 12, 2012).</ref>
=== Flooding ===
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=== Barnsworth Gallery ===
It was announced in 2011 that the [[Illinois Institute of Technology]] was going to build a permanent exhibition space for the wardrobe that Edith Farnsworth commissioned for the Farnsworth House. The wardrobe was extensively damaged in the 1996, 1997, and 2008 floods, with its large size rendering any possible evacuation attempt costly and difficult. In an attempt to protect the wardrobe, curators of the Farnsworth House decided to have the wardrobe put on permanent display near the visitor center on the site, which is well above the 500-year flood plain. Under the direction of Professor Frank Flury, students of the Illinois Institute of Technology designed and constructed the Barnsworth Gallery to house the wardrobe and serve as an exhibition space.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/14335551-418/architecture-class-creates-exhibit-site-for-planos-historic-glass-house.html
==Criticism and acclaim==
The building design received accolades in the architectural press, resulting in swarms of uninvited visitors trespassing on the property to glimpse this latest Mies building. As a result of the accusations contained in Edith Farnsworth's lawsuit, the house soon became a prop in the larger national social conflicts of the [[Joseph McCarthy|McCarthy]] era. The weekend house became a lightning rod for anti-modernist publications, exemplified in the April 1953 issue of ''[[House Beautiful]]'', which attacked it as a "communist-inspired effort" to supplant traditional American styles. Large areas of glass wall, flat roofs, purging of ornament, and a perceived lack of traditional warmth and coziness were characteristics of the [[International Style (architecture)|International Style]] that were particular talking points of attack.
The poor [[Efficient energy use|energy efficiency]] of the Farnsworth House has been widely discussed as well.<ref name="Denzerbook">{{cite book
|last = Denzer
|first = Anthony
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130726200811/http://solarhousehistory.com/book/
|archive-date = 2013-07-26
}}</ref> Farnsworth herself expressed dismay at the house's poor temperature control and tendency to attract insects when illuminated at night.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ackermann|first=Marsh E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98JvDwAAQBAJ&pg
Nonetheless, the Farnsworth House has continued to receive
In the twenty-first century, [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning architectural critics [[Paul Goldberger]] and [[Blair Kamin]] have both declared the house a masterpiece of modern architecture. Its timeless quality is reflected by the reverent fascination in the minimalist house shown by a new generation of design professionals and enthusiasts.
In 2021, [[the New York Times]] named it as one of the 25 most significant works of architecture since [[World War II]].<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Soller|first1=Kurt|last2=Snyder|first2=Michael|date=2021-08-02|title=The 25 Most Significant Works of Postwar Architecture|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/t-magazine/significant-postwar-architecture.html|access-date=2021-08-04|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
== In popular culture ==▼
==Rededication==
On November 17, 2021, Edith Farnsworth's birthday, a rededication of the house on its 70th anniversary was livestreamed on its Facebook and Instagram pages, during which it was officially renamed the Edith Farnsworth House in recognition of its owner's contribution to its benchmark design as well as her achievements as a research physician, classical violinist, poet, translator, and patron of the fine arts.<ref>Carr, Christa, "Farnsworth House renamed Edith Farnsworth House," ''DOCOMOMO-US'', November 15, 2021, https://docomomo-us.org/news/farnsworth-house-renamed-the-edith-farnsworth-house</ref> "We hope this seemingly simple act of inserting her first name has the larger effect of inserting her into the ongoing history of modern architecture," said Scott Mehaffey, executive director of the Edith Farnsworth House.<ref>Stathaki, Ellie, "Edith Farnsworth House’s renaming celebrates visionary client," ''Wallpaper'', November 18, 2021, https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/edith-farnsworth-house-renaming-mies-van-der-rohe-illinois-usa#:~:text=Mies%20van%20der%20Rohe%E2%80%99s%20Farnsworth%20House%20is%20officially,Beth%20Dunlap%20outside%20the%20former%E2%80%99s%20house%20in%201951.</ref>
▲== In popular culture ==
[[June Finfer]]’s ''Glass House'' was produced in New York in 2010.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Zinoman|first=Jason|date=June 2, 2010|title=Throwing Stones at
In 2016, the movie, ''[[Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice]]'', featured a house modeled after the Farnsworth House.<ref>Beam (2020), 274</ref> The follow-up film ''[[Justice League (film)|Justice League]]'' also features the same house in a trailer released at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con.
In January 2019, writer-director Richard Press and [[HanWay Films]] announced an upcoming Farnsworth House film project starring [[Elizabeth Debicki]]<ref>{{Cite news|last=Filler|first=Martin|date=February 11, 2021|title=Life in a Glass House|language=en|work=New York Review of Books|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/02/11/mies-farnsworth-life-in-a-glass-house/
==Gallery==
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File:Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe - interior.jpg|Interior in 2013
File:Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe - interior-3.jpg|interior in 2013
File:Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe - exterior-4.jpg|Underside of house. Note the tube in the center of the house designed as a single point of entry for all the building's utilities.
File:Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe - porch.jpg|Patio
File:Farnsworth House by Mies Van Der Rohe - exterior-6.jpg|Rear of house (kitchen visible)
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==References==
{{Reflist
*{{cite book |title= Broken Glass: Mies van der Rohe, Edith Farnsworth, and the Fight over a Modernist Masterpiece|last= Beam|first=Alex|year=2020 |publisher= Random House|location= New York|isbn= 978-0-399-59271-3|oclc= 1104860779|pages=}}
*{{cite book |title= After Mies: Mies Van Der Rohe, Teaching and Principles|last= Blaser|first=Werner|year= 1977|publisher= Van Nostrand Reinhold|location= New York|isbn=0-442-20820-0 |oclc= 2388415}}
* {{cite book |title= Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe|url= https://archive.org/details/ludwigmiesvander0000drex|url-access= registration|last=Drexler|first=Arthur|year=1960 |publisher= G. Braziller|location= New York|series=The Masters of world architecture series |hdl=2027/mdp.39015031693156|oclc=557871896}}
* {{cite journal |last1= Goldberger|first1=Paul|author-link=Paul Goldberger|date=July–August 2004|title= Farnsworth: The Lightness of Being|journal= Preservation|publisher= National Trust for Historic Preservation|volume= 56|issue=4 |pages= 36–39|url= http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2004/july-august/ja04feature2.html|oclc=98765175|issn= 0018-2419}}
* {{cite web|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-01-29/features/9801290037_1_farnsworth-house-ludwig-mies-van-der-franz-schulze
* {{cite book |title= The Presence of Mies|last= Mertins|first= Detlef|year=1994 |publisher= Princeton Architectural Press|location= New York|isbn= 1-56898-013-2|oclc= 60108694}}
* {{cite book |title= Mies Van Der Rohe: A Critical Biography|last= Schulze|first=Franz|year=1985 |publisher= Univ. of Chicago Press|location= Chicago|isbn=0-226-74059-5 |oclc=185639261}}
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070310235758/http://www.glazenhuis-geldrop.nl/ Het Glazen Huis te Geldrop]: 1971 Dutch home based on the Farnsworth House, designed by H. G. Smelt.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110715082408/http://www.photoree.com/collections/gallery/175660/1 Photographs of the Farnsworth House]
* [
*[http://www.illinoisgreatplaces.com/#welcome Illinois Great Places] - [http://www.illinoisgreatplaces.com/#detail/farnsworth_house-126/city=plano Farnsworth House]
*[http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/IL-01-093-0028 Society of Architectural Historians SAH ARCHIPEDIA entry on the Farnsworth House]
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