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Edith Farnsworth, a prominent nephrologist, commissioned the house from Mies for a property on a (then) relatively isolated floodplain on the Fox river. As the early letters between client and architect attest, the house was to be a relaxed refuge for the cultivation of the self—for translating poetry, playing music, that kind of thing. A new structure, known jokingly as “Barnsworth,” now sits adjacent to the visitor center. Inside, a massive teak wardrobe and closet—a core part of the Edith Farnsworth House that’s difficult to move—is protected from further flood damage.
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A gem of the International Style
Due to increased congestion and construction, allow 2 hours drive time from Chicago to accommodate detours and construction traffic. We offer you extensive information about the history of art, analyses of famous artworks, artist biopics, information on architecture, literature, photography, painting, and drawing. All the furniture pieces in the house were designed by the architect himself, Mies van der Rohe. All the windows are inoperable aside from two small hopper windows on the east of the house, in the bedroom.
Why Is the Farnsworth House Considered a Modern Architectural Building?
The structure is formed by a steel framework, meticulously crafted with beams and columns, which supports the prefabricated cement slabs used for the floor and roof. In the sketches, it can be seen that in no case is the previously agreed surrounding structure challenged by the interior divisions. The proportions of the floor, the positioning of the pillars, the porch area and the mullions of the carpentry of the enclosed space are conditions which remain invariable. The architect proposed that the interior distribution had to encompass all the functional requirements, installations, bathrooms and kitchen without interrupting the glazed perimeter. The house is completely lacking in walls, which have been substituted for floor-to-ceiling glass panels. It is only the curtains, if closed, which impede the vision of the interior at all.
How Many Times Has the Farnsworth House Flooded?
Each year, CAC staff and our team of more than 450 dedicated docents work together to create new ways to experience architecture. Interior tours are limited to 17 guests at a time and we cannot guarantee availability to walk-in guests. Grounds access does NOT include an interior tour of or entry to the Edith Farnsworth House.
The History of the Farnsworth House
The house is accessed by two sets of wide steps connecting ground to terrace and then to porch. The Farnsworth House, designed by renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe between 1945 and 1951, is a testament to minimalist aesthetics in modern architecture. This one-room retreat, located 55 miles southwest of Chicago on a 60-acre estate near the Fox River, was commissioned by Dr. Edith Farnsworth.
Farnsworth House – The House Built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Like Philip Johnson’s Glass Hhouse, which it directly inspired, the Farnsworth house is exceptionally photogenic. It lives in perfect symbiosis with photography, the interior revealing itself to the voyeuristic x-ray eye of the camera. However the most interesting photographs of the Farnsworth house might not be those that show it in its purist glory. Rather, they are those from the later occupancy of Dr. Edith Farnsworth herself, struggling to assert her identity over that of the buildings.
She gave the architect a free hand and a generous budget to create a significant modern home. Construction began in 1950 and proceeded quickly with Mies as general contractor, meticulously controlling every detail. The Edith Farnsworth House was designed and built between 1946 and 1951 as a weekend retreat for prominent Chicago nephrologist, musician, and poet, Dr. Edith Farnsworth, as a place to relax, entertain, and enjoy nature. The house has a distinctly independent personality yet also evokes strong feelings of a connection to the land. The platforms’ levels 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. When one looks at Nature through the glass walls of the Farnsworth House, it takes on a deeper significance than when one stands outside.
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The house was constructed as a one-room weekend retreat in a rural setting in Plano, Illinois, about 60 miles (96 km) southwest of Chicago's downtown. Visiting the home in winter gave me a great appreciation for the radiant floor system that Mies designed and installed. He allowed several inches under the interior travertine to run copper pipes that circulate warm water. Although it takes some time for the water to circulate and heat the floors, it is a great way to condition the house in that it is quiet, and takes relatively small amounts of energy to operate.
Integration with nature
In 1923, the family moved to Provo, Utah, and Farnsworth attended Brigham Young High School that fall. In later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth Fusor, employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). Tickets are required and can be purchased online or by phone when staff is available. Be advised that no pets are allowed on the tours, and there is no shady area to leave them at our Visitor Center.
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 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 that were particular talking points of attack. This is immediately noticeable in the architectural maxims that he espoused, such as “less is more.” Maxims such as this can be seen quite clearly in the Farnsworth House’s interior and exterior design. Additionally, the use of glass in place of walls allowed for far more light to enter a space and for that feeling of openness to be further exemplified by everything that he designed. The asymmetric central core does not reach to the ceiling, except in its central part.
Ask a fan of modern architecture to cite a few of the most celebrated residential landmarks of International Style design in the US, and many will name the Edith Farnsworth House high on their lists. Once there, he became the head of architecture and continued his practical architectural work. He both taught a new generation of architects the ways of Modernist architecture, which would go on to influence international architecture in a major way, but he would also continue to design his own buildings. We will discuss him on his own in time, but he was one of the most important figures in Modern architecture and, more specifically, the International Style, which was a form of Modernism. The building was actually not only designed by this famed architect but was also constructed under his supervision.
What makes the Farnsworth House so unique, is the way it is such a stark contrast to its natural surroundings, yet when you are in the house the lines of nature and home are completely blurred. The lightness of the seemingly floating house is also quite a unique characteristic of the time. Continuity is emphasized by connecting the beams to the sides of the floor and roof slabs, instead of connecting these elements the traditional way by placing the slabs directly on the top of the beams.
The effect of this completely transparent façade is a blurring of the usual boundaries which define the domestic setting. In the Farnsworth House, the distinctions between the public and the private, interior and exterior, often disappear. The only operable pieces of the façade are the double door and the two windows located in the lower part of the Eastern façade.
Very recently, drawings have been made public by the Museum of Modern Art that indicate that Mies specified curtain tracks throughout the open plan to enable the house to be divided into three separate rooms through the use of curtains. Corrosion occurs naturally through time, but unforeseen floods have sped up the process. The replacement glass is unfortunately not the same as the original manufacturing process back when the house was built.
Unfortunately, I did not rent a car and had to pay exorbitant Uber fees to get to Plano. This resulted in me having to pay my driver a separate $200 fee so he would wait in the parking lot and drive me back to the city after the tour ended. Although it was an expensive trip, I am grateful for being able to see this iconic work of Modern Architecture. Mies intentionally terminated the eight steel supporting posts about four inches below the top of the roof plane. When viewing the home from the exterior, it was critical to Mies that the posts not extend up past the roof plane as they would disrupt the purity of the rectangular roof line.
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The calm stillness of the man-made object contrasts also with the subtle movements, sounds, and rhythms of water, sky and vegetation. In 1954 the river rose six feet above the one-hundred-year-mark and flooded the house. However, Mies was not able to anticipate the increase in water runoff caused by the development in the Chicago area which led to more floods. Current research states that the interior of the house has received flood waters on 6 occasions, beginning in 1954 and becoming more frequent having also flooded in 1996,1997, and just recently in 2008. The windows are what provide the beauty of Mies' idea of tying the residence with its tranquil surroundings.
