The Edith Farnsworth House

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The comprehensive story of an icon of modern architecture: the Edith Farnsworth House, designed by Mies van der Rohe

One of the most famous residences in modern history, a glass and steel marvel that seems to float above its site, the Edith Farnsworth House had been legendary in the public imagination long before it could be widely accessed. This book charts the house’s original design by Mies van der Rohe and periods of neglect, flooding, and new ownership by Lord Peter Palumbo.

Now publicly accessible and celebrating twenty years of being owned and administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, this icon of modern architecture commissioned by client and patron Edith Farnsworth now gets its due. The Edith Farnsworth House is one of the most prized residences in modern architectural history, whose sometimes fraught history culminates in its publicly accessible life today.

The book, which newly foregrounds the key role of client Edith Farnsworth, is written and edited by Michelangelo Sabatino, who contributes deep expertise on modernist architecture, and includes an essay by architectural historian Dietrich Neumann, excerpts of Edith Farnsworth’s unpublished memoir, as well as interviews with Mies’s grandson Dirk Lohan, and the house’s second owner, Lord Peter Palumbo. Published in association with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, this book is published is a trove of cultural and visual history, and includes photographs by Hedrich Blessing, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Annie Leibovitz, in addition to documentation of cultural collaborations with artists, designers, and performance troupes such as Virgil Abloh, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, and Gerard & Kelly.

Foreword: Putting Edith back into the Farnsworth House, Scott Mehaffey 8

Introduction: Representation versus Reality, Michelangelo Sabatino 14

The Edith Farnsworth House: Groundwork, 1945–1972 34

Technological Sublime: Designing and Building the Edith Farnsworth House, Dietrich Neumann 98

Dream in the Shade of the Black Sugar Maple, Ron Henderson 116

The Modern House in Chicago: Organic and (not or) Modern, Michelangelo Sabatino 120

Patron of Modern Architecture, Excerpts from the Edith Farnsworth Memoirs 136

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on the Edith Farnsworth House 162

Edith Farnsworth House Oral Histories 166

Lord Peter and Lady Hayat Palumbo 167

Dirk Lohan 176

The Edith Farnsworth House: Lives, 1972–2024 184

Lives of the Edith Farnsworth House: Preservation, Advocacy, and Stewardship, Michelangelo Sabatino 246

Afterword: Reflecting on Two Glass Houses, Hilary Lewis 256

Acknowledgments 262
Contributors 264
Image Credits 265
Select Bibliography and Resources 266
Index 268

• ISBN

  9781580936194

• Title

  The Edith Farnsworth House

• Author

  Michelangelo Sabatino

• Publisher

  Monacelli Press

• Publication year

  2024

• Binding

  Hardcover

• Language

  English