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farnsworth house

Home Tag farnsworth house
farnsworth house to host mod & merry cocktail parties!

farnsworth house to host mod & merry cocktail parties!

Dec 6, 2019

for our second annual mod & merry celebration, enjoy a festive evening in the country. this year’s designer craig bergmann landscape design, will be decorating with inspiration from the house’s rich natural surroundings – you’ll see the outside and feel it inside. on december 6th and 7th gather your friends and family support the farnsworth house while sipping on craft beverages, enjoying hors d’oeuvres and holiday musical stylings of the mary hunt duo. tickets are extremely limited and may be purchased by visiting farnsworth house.

from 7 to 14 december we invite you to tour the decorated house during the day and enjoy christmas treats while shopping new holiday merchandise. the house may be rented for private gathering while in full holiday regalia the same week.

we will happily pour tangled roots brews, virtue cider and wines of fox valley winery. this event is made possible with additional support from troscan design + furnishings of chicago.

winter tours of farnsworth house will begin saturday, 4 january, 2020 and be offered at 11:00 am and 2:00pm on tuesdays and saturdays through march 28th. opening day is march 31, 2020 when the full tour schedule will resume and include refreshments and a gift for tour ticket holders.

designed by mies van der rohe in 1945 and constructed in 1951, the farnsworth house is a vital part of american iconography, an exemplary representation of both the international style of architecture as well as the modern movement’s desire to juxtapose the sleek, streamline design of modern structure with the organic environment of the surrounding nature. mies constructed this glass box residence of “almost nothing” for dr. edith farnsworth as a country retreat along the fox river in plano, il. it continued to be a private residence for over 50 years until landmarks illinois and the national trust for historic preservation purchased it in 2003.

farnsworth house
14520 river road
plano, illinois 60545
630.552.0052

geometry of light farnsworth house revamped for the chicago architecture biennial 2019.

geometry of light farnsworth house revamped for the chicago architecture biennial 2019.

Oct 2, 2019

geometry of light is a three-night light and sound art installation in the iconic farnsworth house, designed by mies van der rohe and lilly reich, and on the surrounding land, in plano, illinois. completed in 1951 and opened to the public in 2004,

the art installation will coincide with the third edition of the chicago architecture biennial. both vip and general entry tickets are already available for purchase. geometry of light will run each evening from 7 pm until 10 pm. presented in concert with a sound-piece developed in direct response to the site by oriol tarragó, this intervention will reveal underlying geometries that relate the house to its river floodplain site, topography, and natural landscape.

[ tickets ]
friday, 11 october 2019 (vip)
7:00 pm | $75 | virtue cider, hors d’oeuvres, & shuttle service to/from aurora metra station included in ticket price. event also features a conversation between zoë ryan, john h. bryan chair and curator of architecture and design at the art institute of chicago, artists petra bachmaier and sean gallero, and architect iker gil.
saturday, 12 october 2019
7:00 pm | $35 | shuttle service to/from aurora metra station available for additional fee
sunday, 13 october 2019
7:00 pm | $35 | shuttle service to/from aurora metra station available for additional fee

the farnsworth house was the weekend home of chicago research physician dr. edith farnsworth. this outdoor intervention will uncover the forgotten history of the site and remnants of earlier landscape by revealing the underlying geometries that relate the world-renowned house to its river floodplain, site topography, and key trees that no longer exist.

geometry of light premiered this past february at the german pavilion in barcelona designed by mies van der rohe and lilly reich. the installation was presented as part of the fundació mies van der rohe’s ongoing program of artistic interventions also corresponding with the llum bcn festival and the santa eulàlia festival.

geometry of light is part of the year of german-american friendship 2018|19 initiated by the german federal foreign office, the goethe-institut, and is supported by the federation of german industries (bdi). this project is generously supported by the graham foundation for advanced studies in the fine arts and bosch power tools – north america. additional support provided by chuck thurow, virtue cider, and many individual donors.

geometry of light farnsworth house revamped for the chicago architecture biennial 2019.

geometry of light farnsworth house revamped for the chicago architecture biennial 2019.

Sep 1, 2019

above > farnsworth house / courtesy of © chris bellezza

farnsworth house, the national trust for historic preservation, and mas context presents geometry of light, an art intervention by luftwerk in collaboration with iker gil.

geometry of light is a three-night light and sound art installation in the iconic farnsworth house, designed by mies van der rohe and lilly reich, and on the surrounding land, in plano, illinois. completed in 1951 and opened to the public in 2004,

the art installation will coincide with the third edition of the chicago architecture biennial. both vip and general entry tickets are already available for purchase. geometry of light will run each evening from 7 pm until 10 pm. presented in concert with a sound-piece developed in direct response to the site by oriol tarragó, this intervention will reveal underlying geometries that relate the house to its river floodplain site, topography, and natural landscape.

[ tickets ]
friday, 11 october 2019 (vip)
7:00 pm | $75 | virtue cider, hors d’oeuvres, & shuttle service to/from aurora metra station included in ticket price. event also features a conversation between zoë ryan, john h. bryan chair and curator of architecture and design at the art institute of chicago, artists petra bachmaier and sean gallero, and architect iker gil.
saturday, 12 october 2019
7:00 pm | $35 | shuttle service to/from aurora metra station available for additional fee
sunday, 13 october 2019
7:00 pm | $35 | shuttle service to/from aurora metra station available for additional fee

the farnsworth house was the weekend home of chicago research physician dr. edith farnsworth. this outdoor intervention will uncover the forgotten history of the site and remnants of earlier landscape by revealing the underlying geometries that relate the world-renowned house to its river floodplain, site topography, and key trees that no longer exist.

geometry of light premiered this past february at the german pavilion in barcelona designed by mies van der rohe and lilly reich. the installation was presented as part of the fundació mies van der rohe’s ongoing program of artistic interventions also corresponding with the llum bcn festival and the santa eulàlia festival.

geometry of light is part of the year of german-american friendship 2018|19 initiated by the german federal foreign office, the goethe-institut, and is supported by the federation of german industries (bdi). this project is generously supported by the graham foundation for advanced studies in the fine arts and bosch power tools – north america. additional support provided by chuck thurow, virtue cider, and many individual donors.


above > farnsworth house / courtesy of luftwerk © nick ulivieri

above/below > the farnsworth house / photography by kate joyce, mel and phil theobald, tom rossiter courtesy of luftwerk

Happy birthday mies van der rohe. 1886 – 1969

Mar 27, 2012

the honoree | click > enlarge

mies was born in aachen, germany, on march 27, 1886. he worked and trained with his father, a master stonemason. at 19 he moved to berlin, worked for bruno paul, the art nouveau architect and furniture designer. at 20 he received his first independent commission, to plan a house for a philosopher (alois riehl). in 1908 he began working for the architect peter behrens. he studied the architecture of the prussian karl friedrich schinkel and frank lloyd wright.he opened his own office in berlin in 1912, and married in 1913.

after world war I, he studied the skyscraper and designed two innovative steel-framed towers encased in glass. one of them was friedrichstrasse skyscraper, designed in 1921 for a competition. it was never built, although it drew critical praise and foreshadowed his skyscraper designs of the late 40s and 50s.

in 1921, when his marriage ended he changed his name, adding the dutch ‘van der’ and his mother’s maiden name, ‘rohe’: ludwig mies became ludwig mies van der rohe.

in the 20s mies was active in a number of the berlin avant-garde circles ( the magazine ‘G’ the ‘novembergruppe’, ‘zehner ring’, and ‘arbeitsrat für kunst’) that supported modern art and architecture along with artists like hans richter, el lissitzky, and theo van doesburg, among others. during this period he made major contributions to the architectural philosophies of the late 1920s and 1930s he made as artistic director of the werkbund-sponsored weissenhof project, a model housing colony in stuttgart. the modern apartments and houses were designed by leading european architects, including a block by mies.

in 1927 he designed one of his most famous buildings, the german pavilion at the international exposition 1929 in barcelona. this small hall, known as the barcelona pavilion (he designed the famous chrome and leather ‘barcelona chair’), had a flat roof supported by columns. the pavilion’s internal walls, made of glass and marble, could be moved around as they did not support the structure. the concept of fluid space with a seamless flow between indoors and outdoors was further explored in other projects he designed for decades to come. mies began working with lilly reich, who remained his collaborator and companion for more than ten years.


barcelona pavilion, 1929.

an early masterpiece.

in 1930, mies met new york architect philip johnson, who included several of his projects in MoMA’s first architecture exhibition held in 1932, ‘modern architecture: international exhibition’, thanks to which mies’s work began to be known in the united states.

in the 30s, none of his designs were built due to sweeping economic and political changes overtaking germany. he was director of the bauhaus school from 1930 until its disbandment in 1933, shut down under pressure from the new nazi government. he moved to the united states in 1937. from 1938 to 1958 he was head of the architecture department at the armour institute of technology in chicago, later renamed the illinois institute of technology.

mies and crown hall at iit, home of the college of architecture

in the 40s, mies was asked to design a new campus for the school, a project in which he continued to refine his steel-and-glass style. he had also formed a new relationship with chicago artist lora marx that would last for the rest of his life. during this period he would become an american citizen and established professionally.

in 1944 he designed one of his most famous buildings, a small weekend retreat outside chicago, a transparent box framed by eight exterior steel columns. the ‘farnsworth house’ is one of the most radically minimalist houses ever designed. its interior, a single room, is subdivided by partitions and completely enclosed in glass.

philip johnson, seagram building.

in the 50s mies realized his dream of building a glass skyscraper. the ‘ twin towers’ in chicago were completed in 1951, followed by other high-rises in chicago, new york, detroit, toronto, culminating in 1954 with the ‘seagram’ building in new york, hailed as a masterpiece of skyscraper design. he also continued to develop a concept of open, flexible space on a much larger scale: in 1953, he developed the convention hall, innovative was the structural system that spanned large distances. in 1959 mies is bestowed the ‘orden pour le merite’ (germany) and in 1963 the ‘presidential medal of freedom’ (USA).

in 1962, he was invited to design the ‘new national gallery’ in berlin. his design for this building achieved his long-held vision of an exposed steel structure that directly connected interior space to the landscape. he returned to berlin several times while the gallery was under construction, but was unable to attend the opening in 1968.

he died in chicago on august 17, 1969. [ mies van der rohe society ] [ 2011: 125th birthday party at iit ] [ farnsworth house ] [ barcelona chair deconstructed ]

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