people in glass houses

We love peeking behind the curtains at historic homes of all types. In our latest issue, HOME, we toured a traditional David Adler house built in the 1920s and filled with sweeping rooms and lavish architectural details. In stark contrast, we recently toured the Farnsworth House, an all-glass monument to mid-century architecture. Built some 25 years after the Adler, this house leaves everything out in the open.

A rumored affair. A temperamental artist. A public feud and lawsuits. Years of drama culminated in this dramatic home. As the story goes, sparks flew when Chicago-based nephrologist Dr. Edith Farnsworth met famed modern architect Mies van der Rohe at a dinner party. In 1945 she commissioned him to build a weekend retreat where she hoped to relax, play the violin and write poetry. Farnsworth, enamored with both the architect and the design, approved van der Rohe’s plans to erect a structure that explored the relationship between people, shelter and nature.

In reality, a ballooning budget and public quarreling culminated in legal battles that tarnished van der Rohe’s reputation. Beautiful but impractical, the home was designed to reflect the natural world outside while hiding the standard domestic necessities from view. Suffering from poor heating and cooling, and a lack of closets and private spaces, the 60-acre location on the Fox River brought with it swarms of mosquitos and damaging floods. The house was derided in the 1950s for what House Beautiful called “a communist-inspired effort” to destroy traditional American lifestyles.

But boy is it beautiful. It’s well worth the drive to explore the house and the surrounding acreage, dotted with sculptures. The Farnsworth House inspired hundreds of other glass homes, most notably the Glass House designed by architect and critic Phillip Johnson as his private home near New York. Both houses are now owned by the National Historic Trust.

For more information or to tour the house visit: www.farnsworthhouse.org