While not located in the city of Chicago, Farnsworth House is close enough that I decided to include it in my series of posts. Located in Plano, Illinois, which is at the far western edge of the Chicago suburbs, the home was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Dr. Edith Farnsworth. Farnsworth commissioned the house as a weekend retreat and chose as its location a site along the banks of the Fox River.
Mies van der Rohe finished his design for the home in 1947, in time for it to be included in the landmark exhibition of his work for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The cost of the home was to be close to $75,000, or around $1,000,000 in 2010 figures. Mies van der Rohe was both the architect and general contractor on the project, a situation that would ultimately lead to a nasty dispute with Dr. Farnsworth. The initial budget firgure was around $58,00 and ballooned to $75,000. Farnsworth and van der Rohe filed lawsuits against each other. The judge dismissed the suit brought by Farnsworth and ruled in favor of van der Rohe in his suit for payment of the budget overages.
The home itself is a lauded example of modernist architecture. The simple rectangular shape of the home seems rooted to the land it sits upon. The flow of the house parallels that of the river, with the terraces extending from the main structure downstream. The interior is a single uninterrupted space, save for two large wooden cabinet-type pieces. One is a wardrobe and the other houses the homes kitchen and toilet facilities. The floor-to-ceiling glass brings in the elements of nature that surround the home. The open space of modern exhibition halls served as a source of inspiration for Mies van der Rohe. The distinct steel slabs that formed the roof and floor sandwiched the wide open living space with its implied but not dictated areas for different activities. The home is open as a museum, and attracts many visitors and architecture enthusiasts each year.
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