A Near Flood Over the Holiday

We weathered a near miss over the holiday weekend. On Friday we had about 12 inches of snow on the frozen ground. The temperature rose quickly to near 40 causing the snow to quickly melt. If that weren’t enough to cause the river to rise, we also received 2 to 3 inches of rain Friday night and all day Saturday with temperatures nearing 60. Flood warnings were sent throughout our area.

To be safe we completely protected the collections in the house in just over 6o minutes with very few volunteers. Staff member Deena, her husband Dean, my daughter Cami, my husband Russ and Dave, a friend of the family, all went down Friday morning and raised and bagged and stacked everything. Thankfully Mother Nature chose not to test us with a winter flood. We are debating perhaps leaving everything raised through the remainder of the off season, or until work begins on the interior from the LAST damaging event in September.

The following picture was taken at 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 28. You can see why even a slight warning, it’s imperative that we protect the house immediately.

Whitney French
Site Manager for the Farnsworth House operator - Landmarks Illinois
Help Save the Farnsworth House by Donating Today.

Winter at the Farnsworth House

I took my camera to the house this morning to capture some concerning frost build up on the windows. The curtains, though thin, do a good job of insulating the glass on occassion and the north side of the house has seen some frost build up as the winter descends upon us. 

This first set of photos shows the difference between this morning, when it was simply cold, and this afternoon when a snow storm arrived.  When I left the house there was a peaceful 3 inch blanket of fresh snow with more falling as I type.

I spent the better half of my day at the visitors center, which is a rather cold, concrete floored pole building, and though smartly appointed and well designed, it is not the most comfortable place to spend a cold winters day. I am in the midst of wading through contracts and meeting FEMA requirements and so the chill can run pretty deep. 

I opened the curtains at the house early in the day to allow the air to circulate and melt the frost off the windows and went back down to the house at day’s end to button it up. I brought the camera and shot the rest of these photos. The common theme was me sitting on the floor, successfully finding warmth in the radiant floor heat. The flakes were small, so its hard to see the snow actually falling, but it was sensational and I could have sat there all afternoon, watching the ice flow down the river.

We’re due more snow tonight, a day of sun tomorrow and then a warm up which promises rain, sleet, slush and snow melt….which reminds me…we’re still looking for suggestions on flood mitigation…have you submitted yours?

Whitney French
Site Manager for the Farnsworth House operator - Landmarks Illinois
Help Save the Farnsworth House by Donating Today.

Celebrating Our Fifth Anniversary

Today marks an historic day for the Farnsworth House. Five years ago, representatives from Landmarks Illinois (who operates and manages the House), Friends of the Farnsworth House and National Trust for Historic Preservation were huddled in a room at the Sotheby’s New York auction house frantically bidding on Mies’ modern masterpiece. Both organizations had worked feverishly to raise millions of dollars in an effort to try and save the House from being purchased, dismantled and moved from its original location. On December 12, 2005, the preservationist were victorious and made international history when the gavel slammed down claiming “sold.”

Since that time, the House has operated as a house museum welcoming nearly 30,000 visitors. We’ve learned a great deal in the past five years, remain continuously humbled by the houses appreciative admirers and still find mystery in the tremendous talent of the architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. We’ve weathered a couple floods - this year’s being the most damaging and we’re constantly trying to find better ways to protect the house, offer new and different tours and broaden our audience. These are some of the many challenges in running the Farnsworth House as a museum. But they are all overshadowed by the satisfaction we see in every visitor’s eyes and comments when they first see this modern masterpiece.

Our visitors have traveled from across the globe. I’ve been privileged to serve as the Director for two years now and I’ve met many of you. I never grow tired of hearing the stories of what the House means to you, or the excitement when the doors open and your feet touch the interior travertine for the first time. For those reasons and more, we will always consider this House as belonging to the people.

As always, thank you for your support. We look forward to the next five years and having a wonderful 10-year celebration on December 12, 2013. Until then, start making your plans now to come see us in 2009!

Whitney French
Site Manager for the Farnsworth House operator - Landmarks Illinois
Help Save the Farnsworth House by Donating Today.

A Nice Surprise

I’ve been inundated with meeting a few grant deadlines and meeting with project managers from FEMA and IEMA (Illinois Emergency Management Agency) so I apologize for neglecting this blog. The Farnsworth House Steering Committee had a very productive meeting last week as we continue the juggling act of preparing requests for proposals regarding a number of grant-based projects for much needed work on the house as well as the flood recovery work.

I will update you on those in the next day or two – in the meantime, I feel I must highlight a wonderful surprise I found in yesterday’s (Sunday) New York Times Style Magazine. April Reed with April Reed Cake Design in Manhattan, NY, has created an intriguing gingerbread version of the Farnsworth House which is being sold for $4,320, with 15 percent of the proceeds going to help us with flood restoration.

According to the article, it took April and her team “several days of photo researcha dn about 25 hours to construct the fondant-covered walls, poured-sugar ‘glass’ windows and sugar-paste I-beams and staircase.” Only a true lover of design would put such time and dedication into not only creating a gingerbread version of the Farnsworth House, but then dedicating a portion of the revenue to is restoration.

From all of us at the Farnsworth House – Thank you Amy! We hope this blog post sends along a happy buyer!

Whitney French
Site Manager for the Farnsworth House operator - Landmarks Illinois
Help Save the Farnsworth House by Donating Today.