Description
The Farnsworth House is located in Plano, Illinois just outside of Chicago. This Mies van der Rohe designed masterpiece is a pilgrimage site for architects and designers world-wide and is considered one of our country’s most important Modern assets. The National Trust for Historic Preservation and select Chicago leaders came together in 2003 to purchase the home to ensure it remained in its inspired and original place along the banks of the Fox River.
While visually minimal, the house's structure is extremely complex and interrelated. First conceived in 1945 as a country retreat for the client, Dr. Edith Farnsworth, the house as finally built appears as a structure of Platonic perfection against a complementary ground of informal landscape. This landscape is an integral aspect of Mies van der Rohe’s aesthetic conception. The house faces the Fox River just to the south and is raised 5 feet 3 inches above the ground, its thin, white I-beam supports contrasting with the darker, sinuous trunks of the surrounding trees. The calm stillness of the man-made object contrasts also with the subtle movements, sounds, and rhythms of water, sky and vegetation.
Open Tuesday through Sunday, April 1 through November 30, the house museum welcomes over 9,000 guests annually from over 50 countries, and uses an active volunteer base of over 40 individuals. The residence is owned and operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a house museum. It is open to the public and available for private events.
